


Siren’s Haven

by TimeLadyoftheSith



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, First Kiss, First Time, Holiday Travels, Shape Shifters, Unintentional drug use, Well not actually drugs it’s the atmosphere, possible dubcon gonna tag just to be safe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-11-19 07:25:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 34,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18132713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimeLadyoftheSith/pseuds/TimeLadyoftheSith
Summary: The Doctor tries to take Rose on a holiday to help her unwind after losing her oldest friend and then her face. When the TARDIS has other plans. She takes them to a planet that the Doctor had visited before, only it’s hundreds of years in that planet’s future.Caught up in the magical atmosphere, the peace that comes with not being in the middle of trouble, and just feeling wonderful in each other’s company, they are oblivious to the problems of the native population. That is, until they each fall prey to the Siren’s call.





	1. Chapter 1

Rose was out of sorts. The Doctor could tell. It had all started with the whole Madam De Pompadour thing. Just when she started cheering up, after he whisked her and Mickey off on a wide variety of adventures that were hair raising, hilarious, or just downright odd, they’d had the experience in the other Earth and Mickey stayed behind. After that, he took Rose for a whole weekend with her mum, then off to Disney World, the planet not the theme park, and then they dealt with a space pirate on a planet that destroys technology and met some awesome, if homicidal, steam powered androids. Everything had seemed to be healing, and then she lost her face. Now Rose was in that wonky phase where her smiles weren’t as bright, she chewed her nail varnish off, and she would stare off into space just a bit too long.    
  
The Doctor didn’t hate many things. Once upon a time, his hate was reserved for Daleks, slavery, the majority of zoos, and that regeneration he didn’t think about but  would haunt him in his dreams incessantly. The former and latter often battled for first place, but lately Rose’s poorly hidden unhappiness had come in at a solid second. Well, technically not lately, more like for the last almost four years, since he thought he lost her in Utah. The timeframe really didn’t matter. What mattered was how Rose was staring at him as she stirred her morning tea and leaned against the console, nodding and making noncommittal noises despite the fact that he’d stopped talking two minutes, thirty three seconds, and nineteen milliseconds ago.    
  
“And then I came in your room and stole all your socks.” The Doctor said randomly, proving to both himself and the TARDIS that Rose needed a proper holiday.    
  
“I bet that was so exciting!” She feigned a smile, not looking at him directly so much as staring through him. Then she froze in her stirring, blinked twice, opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, shook her head as she let out a breath, then gave a confused. “Wait, what?”    
  
_ Told you. She needs a proper holiday, so just once, can you listen to me! _ He chided his ship mentally before taking Rose’s cup and setting it on the console. “Knew you weren’t listening. What I said was, we’re going on a holiday.”    
  
“Doctor, you said we were going to investigate what happened to the original Van Gogh Starry Night ‘nd how it ended up in that black market auction.” Rose didn’t look entirely disappointed, but she didn’t look too eager either. She looked, tired, not physically, but emotionally. He knew that look, because he’d lived with it for the fifty years between the Time War and meeting her. “‘Sides, we just went on holiday like two months ago.” She shrugged, but the Doctor wasn’t having it.    
  
“It doesn’t count as a holiday if we end up being chased by a group of angry vampire chickens.” He huffed, making a mental note to throw away all the frozen chicken in the galley. He doubted he could look at one, alive or dead, and not feel uncomfortable. “Besides, it’s been ages since we went to a beach, not since...” he tried to remember when the last time was.    
  
“Jack got caught having a threesome between sand dunes with the crown princess and her husband to be.” Rose snickered, and the Doctor had to chuckle as he remembered how their friend’s nearly irresistible magnetism had almost caused a marriage treaty to be completed ruined. Luckily, Rose had fixed everything by suggesting to access the security cameras and see which of the men it was that actually, well, penetrated the princess first. Thank bananas it had been the prince and not Jack, so war averted.    
  
“Exactly, and it’ll be a proper holiday too! I’ll even pack some luggage.” The Doctor offered her a wide smile he hoped she couldn’t refuse. Sometimes, he thought, that maybe she felt as strongly for him as he did for her, but she never said. Jack said she did, before he left. Jackie openly voiced her opinions on how she thought they were involved, in, well, more than hugging and hand holding. Also, random people, mostly men, were always saying ‘your wife’ or ‘your woman’ unless he corrected them. Which, he didn’t, unless she was around.    
  
“You’re gonna pack luggage, actual, proper luggage, with your socks, ‘nd tooth brush, ‘nd hair gel?” Rose looked absolutely shocked at the thought, and also, her tongue was starting to poke out just a bit! Aha! Yes! She was gonna give in. “‘Nd proper holiday clothes, not just six of the same suit?”    
  
“I’ll even bring that banana designed speedo Jack bought me on Calastra Minor.”   
  
“Oh god, I thought I chucked that into the volcano.” Rose shook her head, covering her face.    
  
“He bought me another one.” Her exasperated groan as she tossed her head back and sighed made him chuckle. “Okay, no banana speedo. Just plain, ordinary swim trunks.” The Doctor was pleased as Rose looked relieved and fixed him with that look he’d been longing to see. It told him she thought he was totally insane, and she absolutely loved it. “Now, go pack. I had the TARDIS put some trans dimensional luggage in your room, pack hmmmm.” He paused, trying to chew over a decent time frame to get his Rose back to normal. “Five days worth, I think. Yeah, five, definitely five!”    
  
“Should I pack a fancy dress?” That eager delight and wild gleam of adventure finally lit up her eyes, and the beauty of it made his brain turn to mush. She reached out, hooking her fingers under one of his lapels, like she sometimes did when she really wanted him to say yes.   
  
“Yes, you should most definitely pack a fancy dress.” The Doctor took advantage of how much Rose loved hugs to loop his arms around her and squeeze her firmly. Hopefully she didn’t notice how he brushed his lips over her hair. “Now, go pack!” His favorite person in the entire multiverse practically sprinted down the ramp into the hall with a laugh.    
  
“Now you listen.” He rounded on the console, jabbing a finger at the time rotor. “Once, just once, take me where I want to go. Rose needs a break, and I don’t want any of your tricks!” He narrowed his eyes at the TARDIS’ controls. His ship immediately hummed into his mind in willing agreement, but there was that constant mischievous sensation to her sentience. “I mean it. I’m gonna go pack, and you better be good when I get back.”    
  
Turning on his heel, he headed down the ramp, following the trail of Rose’s perfume. He paused, tilting his head and smiling as he heard music playing in her room. Good, she was already cheering up. Then he walked two doors down, pressed his palm against the blank wall, and stepped into his own. He wondered if she had realized he had moved his room closer to hers after the incident on the other Earth. Probably not, because she’d only been in his room twice. That was probably for the best.    
  
Rose stared at the pink and black suitcase in front of her. She worried her lip with her teeth as she tried to decide between her navy blue or flame red bikinis. She knew the Doctor was worried about her, but in reality she was worried about him. He’d been extra hard on himself since Madam de Pompadour. Just when she thought he was relaxing again, they’d battled the cybermen and lost Mickey. As much as the Doctor pretended he didn’t like Mickey, Rose knew he did. Jack and her mum had told her he was so rough on Mickey because he was a bit jealous. That was ridiculous, because first of all, she and Mickey weren’t together and hadn’t been since Cardiff, and second of all, being jealous implied that the Doctor had romantic feelings towards her. That was impossible.    
  
Anyways, Rose had finally thought she’d gotten the Doctor as much out of his funk as she could, when she’d gone and gotten her face stolen. What she hadn’t told him was that she could hear everything when she was like that. She couldn’t move her arms or speak, but she could hear. Oh, the pain and rage and fear he’d had in his voice had been terrifying. She’d almost felt bad for the Wire, knowing that when the Doctor used that voice, when the Oncoming Storm tightened his throat, made every syllable tremble with fury, that there was nothing he wasn’t capable of.    
  
That night, if there was a night on the TARDIS, Rose had sworn she’d woken up one or two times to him kneeling beside her bed and touching her face, but she may have been dreaming. She hadn’t asked him if he had though. What she had noticed was how he had become anxious about her wandering off, when before he’d tell her to be safe and check back in. His glances at her when he thoughts she wasn’t looking had begun to linger, and his hugs had become tighter and longer. She knew he was afraid to lose her, which was never gonna happen, so if he said he wanted a proper holiday, with no wars, no invasions, no interplanetary sentient plague, well she wasn’t about to turn that down.    
  
Deciding she’d let him pick, Rose tossed both bikinis in the case, and dropped her makeup bag on top. If she’d been about to go on holiday back on Earth, which she really didn’t think of as home anymore, she’d have gone ahead and pulled on a pair of cut off shorts and a vest top. Being with the Doctor for four years told her that she was just as likely to end up on a frozen tundra as she was a tropical leisure planet, and therefore should go with pants and a T-shirt under a thin jacket just in case. Picking up her luggage, which was only the size of a carry on bag but had half her closet in it, she only surprised for a moment at how light it was. Shoving her own worry aside, she skipped into the console room and skidded to a stop. The Doctor was not in his suit.    
  
Okay, every once in a while, when they journeyed far enough into the past or to a planet where their twentieth and twenty-first century clothes would stand out too much, the Doctor would don a toga or a nicked uniform. The suit always went back on ASAP though. This, well, this was different. The Doctor had on a pair of khaki pants that were just a bit looser than his pinstripe ones, but not by much, with a maroon linen shirt that was unbuttoned enough to show off a white undershirt, and the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. His Converse were still present, only maroon instead of cream, and he had a pair of sunglasses perched on his hair. Rose had to snap her lips closed to make sure she wasn’t drooling, because he looked absolutely stunning.    
  
“What?” The Doctor spoke, and Rose realized she’d been staring maybe a bit too long. She felt her ears begin to flame. “This is proper holiday wear, innit?” She swallowed as he pushed himself away from the console and gestured down at his outfit. “Is it the shirt? I wasn’t sure maroon was my color, you know. It was in my last body, but this one, ehhhh,-“    
  
“Doctor, you look.” Rose cut off his rambling, not sure whether to tell him just looking at him had stolen her breath or just that he looked nice. “Handsome, but you knew that. You always know you look good.” She was proud she managed an eye roll as he beamed cheesily at her and rocked back on his heels. “Can’ take you anywhere without some queen or king wanting you as their husband can I.” She smacked his arm playfully as she dropped her bag next to his blue one and tugged on his sleeve. “So, go on then, tell us where we’re going.”    
  
“There’s this planet called Kipalio Mantrapa. It’s got this amazing resort that spans an entire continent the size of Australia.” The Doctor began flipping switches, and Rose gripped onto the console as the grinding whir of the TARDIS’ ancient, marvelous engines began to move. The Doctor’s eyes flicked to Rose’s, then the teal, rubbery bulb off to her right. Squealing in delight, she grabbed the mallet and smashed it.    
  
Then the jerking began, and Rose couldn’t contain the wild laughter that bubbled out of her as she stumbled to the left, directly into the Doctor. She felt her stomach swoop for a whole other reason when he snagged her around the waist and tucked her into him as his other hand flew over the coordinates. In a matter of moments the shaking stopped, and the Doctor released her to start throwing switches and power down the TARDIS into her parking cycle.    
  
“Me first!” Rose grabbed her bag, running to the doors, and threw them open. The Doctor wasn’t yelling at her to wait, so apparently this was safe. She stepped out, turning her face up to the warm sun, and took a deep breath that engulfed her in an invisible bath of fresh baked banana muffins, Artulian Whitebark Musk, well worn leather, and just a hint of fabric softener. “Oh my god! It smells like your bedroom out here!” She called back. She’d been in his room twice, but that smell was unmistakable.    
  
“What?!” The Doctor joined her, inhaling deeply, and she watched as his face lit up like he’d just had the most marvelous thought. “No it doesn’t. It smells like...” his voice trailed off, and he went tense. “This isn’t Kipalio Mantrapa. This is Yeru Minor.”    
  
Rose let out a breath, but she didn’t let her disappointment linger. It was almost like she couldn’t. “Well, this isn’ the first time you’ve mis-landed us. C’mon, let’s go explore.” For the first time, she had to pull the Doctor along, because he was looking hesitant. She almost paused, but then that manic grin spread across his face, and they were melting into the crowds on the streets.   
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor had heard what people said about Yeru Minor when he’d crashed there the day the Time War ended. That regeneration had been particularly explosive, leaving his TARDIS uninhabitable for over a week. The planet had dramatically changed, and judging by the date on a nearby hovering clock, that may have been because it was one thousand years since he was there. When he had not so much as visited as hid there for two years, the air had held no scent for him apart from local flora and such, although he had been informed it smelled like somewhere you felt implicitly safe.    
  
He was stunned that it smelled like his bedroom for Rose, but he wasn’t so stunned that it now smelled like the TARDIS library mixed with Rose’s shampoo in her damp hair. How that could make him feel safe, he didn’t understand, and honestly he found that if he didn’t focus on it, he didn’t want to. “Doctor, wha’s a refocusing pod?” Rose was pointing at what looked like a line of glass buildings along the side of a building, where people of different species were talking on comms or typing furiously at tablets.    
  
“I forgot, uh, the atmosphere on Yeru Minor has these naturally occurring elements that inhibit negative thoughts or stressors. They don’t completely suppress them, more like redirect your thoughts towards positive ones. I imagine the pods are so people can focus on things temporarily while on their own holidays.” The Doctor couldn’t believe he had forgotten the very reason he’d stayed on the planet so long, why he’d chosen to stay for almost two years instead of jumping immediately back into his TARDIS. This planet had helped him cope, helped him see all the good things after so many years of hell. “It doesn’t affect the natives of Yeru Minor though, because they’ve developed a natural immunity.”    
  
“So, basically, the air is making me high right now?” Rose giggled, squeezing his fingers as she drew another deep breath. “‘Nd hungry. Mmmm can we go check in ‘nd eat. I want to see everything Yeru Minor has to offer!” Seeing her look so happy made him relax just a tad.   
  
“We haven’t been called Yeru Minor in about a hundred annuals.” A pleasant voice drew their attention to a stunning Yerusian woman holding the hand of a small child. “When we converted the planet into a pleasure retreat, we changed the name to Siren’s Haven.” The Doctor returned her smile, as he processed the words. “Are you two on your honeymoon? That’s a human custom, right?”    
  
“It is, but we’re not uh, married. I mean, we’re just friends.” Rose couldn’t take her eyes off of the absolutely gorgeous humanoid woman in front of her. She had skin that looked like she was made of the softest, most creamy cappuccino that literally shimmered in the sunlight. Her hair was down to her waist in perfect waves, like someone had dipped silk strands into gold. Her eyes were green, an intense glowing green, but then she blinked, and they transformed into the most familiar blue color that stole her breath, and another blink and they were the same melted milk chocolate of the man beside her, and then they were green again.    
  
“I’m Aisling. This is my half brother Aelius.” She gestured down to the boy at her side, but Rose didn’t miss how she eyed the Doctor now, an appraising look that she knew should make her feel a tad jealous, but instead she related to. Who wouldn’t want to look at him. The Doctor was gorgeous. “Is this your first visit to our planet.”    
  
“Not me, no, I was here about a thousand years ago. It’s Rose’s though.” The Doctor was watching the woman’s face too, his forehead wrinkled in confusion, and then his gaze flicked to hers. Rose pressed closer to him. “Where would recommend to find the best place to book a room?”    
  
“Oh, Sunrise Dreams!” Aelius piped up, and Rose flashed him her most friendly smile. “Aisling and Jarek run it!” Aisling tsked her brother, making his cheeks flush pink. It was in that moment that Rose realized his skin oddly translucent where the sun hit it. There also wasn’t much of a similarity between them except for their lips and eyes.    
  
“Lius, let them choose their own.” Aisling sighed, her own cheeks darkening in a lovely manner. “Sorry, I really must get him back to my mother. Enjoy your stay.”    
  
“She’s full Yeruan, but he’s half Jalonian.” The Doctor chuckled as the pair disappeared into the crowd. Rose looked up at him, wondering if it was important. “Jalonians never mate outside their race.”    
  
“Should we be worried?” Rose tried to search for the siblings, but they were gone.    
  
“Nah, it’s a pleasure planet. It happens.” The Doctor shook his head and tugged her hand. “Sunrise Dreams sounds great, doesn’t it. Let’s find it.” Gripping her luggage handle, she let him pull her along as she took in the sights.    
  
They appeared to be in some sort of coastal city. Beyond the shops and buildings promising thrills, Rose could see enchanting lilac waves and pristine green sand. Beautifully colored birds cried out as they swooped overhead, diving in and out much like seagulls. Beyond the buildings to her left were sparkling high rises with what looked like tubs connecting some and floating forests connecting others. Beyond all that, towering in the distant, was a range of mountains covered in rich green trees, and no matter where they went, what scents of food or the sea carried on the wind, the underlying smell of the Doctor’s bedroom was there. Rose had never felt anything so peaceful.    
  
The Doctor was relieved to see Rose looking so relaxed. It had been weeks since she’d been this genuinely happy, and it was infectious. He paused at a public computer terminal, scanned it with the sonic, and pinpointed the direction of the apparently small but nine and a half star resort that was tucked away on a private beach and boasted the most intimate and breathtaking gardens in Zone Sigma. “There it is!” He exclaimed, as they turned down a cul de sac and stared at the shimmering sign. “Oh, a Kolpi!” He breathed, highly impressed to see they still existed.    
  
“A wha’?” Rose queried from beside him, and one look told him she was just as stunned at the buildings beauty.    
  
“A Kolpi-Sanctuary, one of the native trees here, mildly sentient.” He pointed the sonic at what appeared to be the roof and pressed the button, chuckling as one of the silver blossoms unfurled and Rose cooed in delight. “So, a very skilled Yeruan can bond with a Kolpi, and if the Kolpi likes them, they can sing them into any shape. Mostly they sang them into buildings.” They drew closer, and he reached out gently with his thoughts to nudge the tree. She hummed back, a wave of happiness at being acknowledge by an offworlder. “This beautiful lady must have been hundreds of years old to make a building of this size.”    
  
“Hmmm, a semi-sentient tree as a hotel.” Rose’s face shone in eager delight. “‘M definitely okay for this. I hope they have rooms!”    
  
“Let’s find out.” The Doctor led her inside, approaching the main desk where a rather handsome looking Yeruan man was attending the front desk. Four or five people were milling about, muttering about spas or excursions into the jungle. “Jarek, what a coincidence you’re at the desk. Just met the wife and little brother in law.” The man’s eyes met his, as his lips pulled up in a smile. “We were hoping you had some vacancies.”    
  
“Well, yes, we do!” Jarek’s gaze flicked down to their joined hands, and then up at him. “We just finished cleaning our Royal Honeymoon suite, and the previous reservation cancelled. I’m sure you and your wife will love it.”    
  
“My wife. No.” The Doctor laughed softly as he curled his arm around Rose. “We’re just friends, but I promised her a proper holiday!” He pulled out one of his unlimited credit sticks. “But we’ll take two of the best rooms you have available, with your top experience packages added on.” Jarek took the credit sticks, but now his gaze had shifted over to Rose, as if he was appraising her. Normally, this would stir his jealousy and protectiveness, but at that moment, he couldn’t blame the man. Rose was so beautiful, inside and out.    
  
The man was right up Rose’s alley too. He was tall, with rich cappuccino skin, and full lips. His chocolate brown hair was styled up in a spikey tassel, and he had the most intense lavender eyes. Then he blinked, and suddenly they were the same amber, topaz, melted honey of Rose’s, then they glowed almost gold like they had when she was Bad Wolf, and he blinked again. Jarek’s eyes were again lavender. “Well, Rose, and Mr.. um-“    
  
“Doctor, just The Doctor.” Rose offered, and the Doctor almost missed the shy way she bit her lip and blushed softly. “This one, I mean. Tha’s his name.”    
  
“Okay, Doctor. Luckily it’s the beginning of the week, so I have two rooms. They’re in the very back, just through the gardens with access to the beach. Please let us know if you need anything.”    
  
The Doctor scooped up their key cards, draped his arm over Rose, and led her out the sliding glass doors to the garden. For a moment, he was transported back to the remote forest village where he masqueraded as a medical Doctor, but the negative emotions he’d suffered there did not resurface. He felt them, but Rose’s arm around his back and the smell in the air eased them away. “So, put our things away, then get some food?”    
  
“Yes please!” Rose was gazing adoringly around at the massive bushes, and suddenly she gasped. “Oh, look, the Kolpi forms a ring!” Now that she’d pointed it out, he saw the building did indeed form a ring around the garden. The wooden walls had doors spaced out along it, as well as three floors up with the same wood making stair cases. It was a marvel that somewhat reminded him of the TARDIS nurseries. “Oh, I love this place.”    
  
“Me too.” Their rooms were indeed at the far end of the garden, with the doors spaced far enough apart to be the size of a four bedroom flat. “Here you go. Put your bag away, change, and meet me right back here.” Rose took it, and then to his delighted surprise, went up on her toes and kissed his cheek before disappearing into her room.    
  
The Doctor let himself enjoy the sensation, and smiling proudly at himself for finding the perfect place for Rose to recover, he stepped into his own room. When the door closed, a thought flitted into his mind, and he knew it should worry him, but it didn’t, not like it would have. When he first met the Yeruans, they’d been displaying the beginning stages of the evolutionary chain of shapeshifting. A thousand years would have made them full on shifters now. “That’s brilliant.” He laughed, carrying his bag through to the bedroom, even though he knew he wouldn’t be sleeping.    
  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3

It had been ages since the Doctor had felt so unfettered by the ghost of the Time War, but walking along the sprawling boardwalk with Rose just made him feel relaxed. It wasn’t just relaxation either, but it was like this weight he had forgotten he was supposed to be carrying, forced to be carrying, had been lifted off of his chest. It was just so easy, so natural to forgo holding Rose’s hand between them and drape it over her shoulder where she held it in the hand not wrapped around the ice cream cone. Hers was chocolate, and he had just inhaled his banana one.    
  
“Okay, so we did lunch, got ice cream, now what?” She asked, bumping her hip into his. She caught a dribble of the icecream from her knuckle with her tongue, and he managed to push away the desire to steal it with his own.    
  
“Oooo, we could go Glytara gliding!” Rose followed the Doctor’s finger towards the sign declaring they were loading the bus for the excursion. “Or we could go Bubble diving to the reef.” She flicked her gaze over to a group of people in street clothes being covered in a bubble shaped membrane that covered them from head to foot like a wetsuit. “Or we could try-“he paused for a moment, then his eyes went wide. “Rose, you trust me, don’t you?”    
  
“Wha’ sorta question is that? Of course I do, with my life.” Rose tossed her now too melty cone in a receptacle and turned to place her hand over his right heart. “You know that, right?” The Doctor’s face split into one of his mischievous grins as he slid the arm from her shoulder to wrap it around her waist and tighten just slightly.    
  
“Just checking.” The Doctor knew, somewhere in his mind, that the idea was possibly a bad one. The business that had caught his eye was one that was designed to cater to couples, particularly telepathic of empathic races. Rose’s experience merging with the TARDIS, as well as being exposed to both his and the ship’s telepathic abilities had already increased the low level telepathy in her human mind. She would be able to do it. “I want to try something.” He guided her to the door, blinking twice to adjust his eyes to the lower light level.    
  
“Welcome to Immersion.” The Yeruan woman behind the counter smiled. Well, at least Rose thought she was. It was taking a bit for her eyes to adjust in the low lighting. The smell of the Doctor’s bedroom was suddenly far more potent in here, and there was this sort of tickle in her mind, similar to the TARDIS or when the Doctor needed to tell her something telepathically, but nowhere near as strong. “Do you have an experience package?”    
  
“Yes, we do.” The Doctor pulled his and Rose’s room cards from his pocket to hand them to Ruya, as her name badge informed him. It took him a brief moment to register that Ruya’s cappuccino skin had silver veins showing through, and he blurted out. “Are you pregnant with a Kladestine’s child?” Rose slapped his stomach with a snort of disapproval like she had a tendency to do when he was being rude.  “What? Don’t you see the silver veins? When Kladestine’s interbreed with a female from another race, the mother’s vein turn silver!”    
  
“I am, second term.” Ruya laughed, and Rose was pleased that the Doctor’s blunt question hadn’t offended the woman. “You and your husband must be very well traveled if he recognized the symptoms.” Rose opened her mouth to explain that they weren’t married, when the Doctor laughed and tugged her closer.    
  
“We get around.” The Doctor had noted a holo portrait behind the counter, with Ruya clad in the traditional wedding garments of her people standing beside a Yeruan man in traditional marriage robes. That wedding band still twinkled brightly on her wrist, and the same man was at a desk in an office just behind her. “So, is it included in our packages?” He knew, in some part of his mind, that he was missing something important, but Rose shifted against him, and that relaxing scent of her freshly shampooed hair in the TARDIS library struck him again, and he relaxed. It suddenly wasn’t so important.   
  
“Yes, you’re reservations at Sunrise Dreams does include it.” Rose was pleased with the confirmation. She had no idea what Immersion was, but it was obviously going to be exciting if the Doctor  wanted to try it. “You’ve linked telepathically before, yes?” Telepathy? For a moment, her heart trilled in anxiety, but then she remembered this was the Doctor, and they’d communicated telepathically many times in the past, if briefly and almost always when they were in danger.    
  
“Oh, loads!” Rose’s confirmation made the Doctor beam proudly at her. “So what s’actly is Immersion.” She made to reach for the tablet that was displaying information, but the Doctor cut her off.    
  
“You’ll see. Just trust me.”    
  
“Always, Doctor.” Rose’s soft assurance as Ruya handed him back their key cards and stood up was all he needed to hear. Sliding his hand down, he grasped Rose’s fingers and followed the woman down the intimately lit hall. He could feel the telepathic levels behind each door they passed, even if the sound proofing hid the noises. Some rooms had lone occupants, but many more had couples. Many of the couples rooms were just emanating content bliss, but a handful were vibrating with the obvious waves of intimate pleasures.    
  
“Feels, hmmm, good in here.” Rose couldn’t explain the almost vibrating sensations she felt as she passed each door. Once, for a laugh, she, Shareen, and Kisha had visited a swingers club on a single ladies night. The energy in some parts of the hall vaguely reminded her of that, but she didn’t dwell on it. It was almost as if she couldn’t dwell on it, like the thought just refused to stick in her mind. The Doctor wasn’t worried, so she wasn’t. In fact, she recalled how he hadn’t corrected Ruya about them being married, and it pleased her to no end.    
  
“There are clean towels and suits inside, if you prefer not to perform the Immersion nude. Many couples prefer not to for their first time.” Ruya pushed open the door, and the Doctor touched his brown with two fingers in the Yeruan symbol of thanks as he led Rose past her into the room. “The door will lock from the inside. Simply press the green switch. I’ve set you up for a two hour session.” Then the door clicked shut, and they were alone.    
  
Rose stared at the room, releasing the Doctor’s hand as she took it in. It was lit warmly by odd shaped lamps of yellow, orange, and pink stones. The air was dry, but also strangely crisp. That comforting aroma of the Doctor’s bedroom was almost overpowering, completely permeating everything. “Hang on, those look like Himalayan Salt lamps.” She moved closer to the swirl shaped one on the wall. Then she noted that the room was also intensely quiet, their breathing and movements the only noises. “‘S this room soundproof.” She jumped as the Doctor’s hands landed on her shoulders softly.    
  
“They’re Aldebarrean purification lamps. Similar to Himalayan salt, but stronger, more pure. You should start feeling the detoxification in just a moment.” The Doctor was already feeling them drawing out what little of the cities pollution his system had missed being pulled into the air. It made that safe scent of Rose in the TARDIS library stronger, and his mind poked at him, almost as if in warning, but she looked over her shoulder at him, so trusting, so completely at ease, and the warning was gone. “And yes, the rooms are sound proof. It enhances the effects of the pool chamber.” He pointed to the open pool the size of an Earth spa on the far wall, the lid open, waiting, the heavily Aldebarrean salt water beckoning them.    
  
“So what do we do?” Rose turned, eying the water and feeling suddenly nervous as the Doctor began unbuttoning his shirt. He smiled at her, the one that he gave when they’d had quite the harrowing adventure but she was safe with him and to relax. So, the nerves flittered away.    
  
“Change into this. I’ll turn my back.” He tossed his shirt aside and grabbed a bundle of clothes from a shelf. Rose took it, waiting for him to turn around, but also hoping he’d peek. Then she turned her back to him, stripping off her sundress and knickers, she’d forgone a bra in such a strappy dress, and wriggles into the suit. It was almost like a strapless bandeau bikini top, but thinner, lighter, made of an inifitely soft material that covered her breasts perfectly. The bottoms were cut almost identical to the knickers she just removed, and she felt like she was wearing nothing. “Done, you?”    
  
“Yup.” The Doctor knelt beside the pool, testing the warm water with his hand. Oh, he had been so tempted to peek at Rose, knowing she was so close and naked, but he didn’t. It wasn’t his privilege. He’d seen her nude before, when he’d had to treat some nasty burns in the infirmary, but that had been clinical, and he hadn’t actually looked at her. Now he gazed up, trying not to stare at the expanses of her exposed skin. The salt lamps gave her a warm glow, and he felt his hearts pick up at the sudden intimacy of the situation. This wasn’t a good idea. Immersion, with Rose, it could be disastrous. Her eyes met his, so warm and trusting, and he was an idiot. This was a brilliant idea. “Come here.”    
  
Rose felt worry, as the Doctor’s eyebrows crinkled like they did when he’d noticed something wrong with a situation, not wrong, but dangerous. Then he smiled and extended a hand to her, and the worry evaporated. She half sprinted to him, eager to see what this was about, always trusting her Doctor. She did her best not to stare at his bare skin, how the only thing he was wearing was boxer style shorts of the same material as her suit. She’d seen him naked when she changed him into the pajamas after regeneration, but she hadn’t really looked. She’d just noticed enough to know that he was definitely right when he pointed out Humans and Time Lords were outwardly physically identical. “So I get in?” She asked, and at his nod, she started slowly into the water.    
  
“Ohmigod, this feels amazin’.” Rose’s groan as she waded into the water was pure invitation, and the Doctor nearly chastised himself as he allowed a single fantasy of him making her make that noise with his lips. “‘S like the perfect bath.” He followed her in, breathing deeply as he stood in front of her, inhaling that intoxicating scent of her. “Now what?”    
  
“Lie back, you’ll float. Go on.” At the Doctor’s words, Rose leaned back in the water, shocked that she floated with relative ease. She didn’t have to keep herself up, because she wasn’t sinking. It was almost like zero grav, but different. Then he was pressing a button and floating beside her. She watched as the lid began to close, and for a moment she felt a bit claustrophobic. The Doctor’s fingers laced with hers, and the feeling was gone.    
  
In a breath, they were enclosed in absolute darkness, and the only sounds she heard was their hearts, breathing, and the slosh of the water. “Sensory depravation, when done properly, can lead to a meditative state. When added to a purifying solution like Aldebarrean salt water, it creates an almost out of body experience.” The Doctor’s whisper was soothing, enchanting, as his bare arms and legs brushed hers. “Add in telepathy, and, well, you’ll see.” Rose swallowed, feeling the water ease her body much as a good bath and glass of wine would. “When I squeeze your hand, rest your head back until your ears are covered by the water, and close your eyes.”    
  
“‘Kay.”    
  
The Doctor drew a deep breath, acknowledging that this was the most intimate thing he’d ever let himself experience with his Rose, but it didn’t scare him. It didn’t make him want to run. He should want to, but it didn’t seem important to flee at that moment. He lowered his head back, tensing only briefly as his sense of hearing was completely muted by the water, and squeezed her hand. The water shifted infinitesimally, and he exhaled. Once he felt her totally relax, the Doctor reached out with his mind and knocked questioningly at the barriers he’d taught her to build.    
  
Rose’s barriers parted, and he eased himself into the outskirts of her thoughts, not projecting words, and not reading her thoughts. He just let his own presence rest against hers, let her touch and test the connection timidly. He reveled in the beauty that was her mind, in the sweet tinge of artron and time that was still there, even two years after merging with his ship. Her emotions tinkled in response to his admiration, even though he knew they weren’t connected enough for her to see more than that he enjoyed communicating this way with her.    
  
When Rose first met the Doctor, telepathy scared her. The idea that someone could read her thoughts had felt invasive, but the Doctor had never once violated her trust. After four years, she found that she immensely enjoyed being linked with the TARDIS, having a being as powerful as she was as a sort of confidant and friend. She also loved when the Doctor linked with her mind, though their exchanges were rarely more than a minute. His presence in her thoughts was always pleasant, always soft, almost like a lover’s whisper. Feeling him now, when all other senses had been cut off, was enthralling. He was teasing along the edges of her mind, like a cat weaving between her legs, begging for attention, and without hesitation she reached out in her mind and stroked. The response was instantaneous. His powerful essence surged forward, wrapping himself around her, caressing, humming in an affection she couldn’t describe. She knew what she hoped it was, but couldn’t ever hope it was that. He didn’t feel things like romantic love, right?    
  
Their wordless game of touching, playfully chasing, and twirling of trust and admiration of the other began to lull her subconscious. All distracting thoughts seemed to fade away, all the underlying worry of what had transpired the last few months disappeared from her mind, until the only thing she knew, she felt, she smelled and tasted was the Doctor. Somehow, she knew the only thing he was experiencing was her, and then that thought trickled away, and their thoughts dimmed, just briefly, and suddenly she was lifting, floating, up, and then she was wrapped in the Doctor’s embrace. She opened her eyes, and her breath left her body


	4. Chapter 4

The “ _ Where are we?” Rose’s breathless query coaxed the Doctor’s eyes open, as his bare feet touched the softest of grass. A crisp orange sky, with streaks of bluish silver clouds danced overhead, and Rose’s fingers tightened briefly against the lapels of his suit. He barely thought the name, before Rose sucked in a breath and murmured. “Gallifrey?”  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Not really, just, a memory, my memory.” He gazed around, realizing they were on the southern continent, where some of the planet had been spared the wrath of the first great Time War, where green grass and plants still grew, interspersed with the dominant golden strains, where the deserts of the bad lands hadn’t tainted things. This was the Gallifrey of his youth, when he was care free, happy, before the Academy. “What do you think?”  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “I love it!” Rose couldn’t hold still. She pulled out of his arms, taking his hand, and ran head long into the knee high grass. She realized, after a moment, that she was in a dress she’d worn once on Hohjila Antripa, a ceremonial, scarf like gown that was traditional to celebrate spring. The pink, silk like material fluttered around her, and she wondered why she was wearing it.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Because it’s my favorite dress you’ve ever worn.” The Doctor laughed, such a carefree and light sound that Rose’s heart soared in response. “You look like a faery princess in it!” He was at her side now, staring down at her with a wild fire in his brown eyes. No, they were blue, and he was the the first Doctor she’d met. “Tag, you’re it!” His rough burr exclaimed, and his leather coat was off at a run.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Come back!” Rose’s giggle spurred the Doctor on, and he sprinted for the thin forest ahead, ducking behind a tree, but he should have remembered they were telepathically linked. She was suddenly in front of him, her skin glistening in the double sun. “Tag!” She poked him in the chest, and then she was running. The Doctor gave chase, unable to stop the sheer joy at the moment from bubbling out in a laugh. The forest shimmered, and he was dashing wildly after her along the banks of Lake Abydos.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Are those fish singing?!” Rose skidded to a stop, gazing out over the glistening lake. The Doctor nearly crashed into her. She knew it was the Doctor, but it wasn’t the Doctor she knew and had known. He was her height now, only a tad taller, with gorgeous, jaw length flowing hair, a strong jaw, intense eyes, and a velvet frock coat with a vest and a watch chain. “Ooo, I like this one.” He looked at her, those grey blue eyes seeming like they were seeing her and seeing through her all at once. _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Oh, my eighth body! How fun!” His voice was rich, soothing, like whip cream melting into hot coco. “I do miss the hair.” He ran a hand through it, and he leaned in. She was falling into his eyes, and Rose could see herself. She was glowing in the sun, and all her physical flaws she hated seemed to have disappeared. She looked like the time her mum had paid for her to do a photoshoot, and they’d airbrushed and edited everything just right so she still looked like her, but like a model. It was breathtaking. Then, she was in her body again.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Is that how you see me?!” The Doctor felt his cheeks flush at Rose’s shocked question, but he didn’t respond. Instead, he took her hand, and they were walking. He gazed around in amusement as he found himself back in his tenth body. When he had slipped into Rose’s view of him, his ego had been both humbled and stroked to know that she found this body, his last body, and his eighth body all quite fit and, in her words, drool worthy. “Where’s this?”  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Just a town.” The Doctor laughed, as he heard the music from the New Years festival ahead. He dragged Rose towards it, paying no mind to the faceless Gallifreyans milling about. His goal was the city center, and he grabbed a spare ribbon from the tall pole and wrapped it around his wrist. He tossed the other end to her, beaming as she wrapped it around hers, and they began to move with the thirty or so others dancing around the pole.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Rose’s tongue touched smile lit the night brighter than the floating torches and the yellow festival lights. She was beauty incarnate as she stepped gracefully around the children running by with flowers, their red and gold robes flying. Her gaze met his, stealing his breath and his hearts, and the town shimmered into the expanse of space. They were standing on a flat moon, one that was stuck in low orbit over the planet Liba. It had its own orbit, it’s own atmosphere, but with a phenomenal twist. The waterfall at the moon’s edge cascaded to the planet below.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “I love this place!” Rose threw her arms wide, breathing in the mist that the waterfall caused to rise. She looked back at the Doctor, who was once again in his pinstripes, gorgeous hair, and devastating smile. “We should go back!”  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Sorta banned for life, remember.” He snorted, and she giggled. Grabbing his hand, she pulled him to her, right on the edge of the waterfall. “Dance with me!” He spoke her thoughts, and Rose went willingly into his arms. She didn’t recognize the music that came from nowhere, but it reverberated inside of her, around her, and from him. It made her want to shout, and it made her want to weep. His eyes were fathomless, swirling chocolate and caramel mixed with nebulas as he gazed down at her. Rose couldn’t breathe.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Did you like my planet?” The Doctor had to ask something, before his thoughts betrayed him. His touches already were, because he had to pull her impossibly close. He had to splay his fingers against the soft silk over her back. He had to step slowly to the music and drown in the melted honey gold of her eyes. “Rose?”  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “It was beautiful. The most beautiful planet ‘ve ever seen. I wish you talked about it more.” Her words echoed from her lips, and in his mind. “Maybe we could use the holovid room in the TARDIS ‘nd you could take me on a tour. ‘D love that. Please!” He couldn’t deny her when she asked so sweetly, when her fingers squeezed his just so, when her other hand slid up his chest to his shoulder. “Doctor.”  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “That’d be brilliant.” The Doctor knew, again, that he wasn’t supposed to be letting himself do this. That he wasn’t supposed to remember Gallifrey so freely, so happily, but he was drowning in the smell of Rose. He was completely surrounded in her trusting, beautiful, intoxicating mind. The worry flitted away. “I want to show you everything in the universe.”  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “The Doctor ‘nd Rose Tyler, universe explorers, meddling experts, and time travelers extraordinaries.” Rose exclaimed, just as he gave her a gentle dip. The Doctor pulled her back up, as his subconscious changed the music in his mind. It was softer, quieter, an invitation he so wanted to make but knew he never should. Rose stilled in his arms, her eyes flicking between his, and her thoughts changed the music, just barely, a soft swell of an orchestra beginning to rise. He couldn’t help himself anymore, and he lowered his face.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Rose shivered as the Doctor’s breath broke over her face, but it wasn’t his breath. It was the scent of his bedroom. He was shimmering above her, his face changing. Ten, now she knew their numbers, then nine, and then eight. He had curly blonde and a wildly colored coat. Then he had question marks on his collar. He was a stunning, young blonde man in a cricket coat with celery, and she blinked as their noses brushed. He was leather and blue eyes again. His fingers tightened against her back, as the pinstripe lapels curled under her fingers. She just had to press up. She was pressing up on her toes, this was it. This was happening! Finally! _ _   
_ _   
_ A soft, water muffled buzz followed by a sunrise of golden light made the Doctor gasp. The connection snapped. he jerked in the water, disoriented as he was yanked back into his own body, and he sputtered out the salt water that splashed onto his face. Rose was gasping beside him, scrambling to her feet. He put his own down, grabbing her, stabilizing her trembling body, as the images of their connection faded as quickly as a dream. “You okay?”    
  
“Yeah, I think.” Rose reached up to squeeze the water from her hair. Faint, flickering images were pouring out of her mind. She clung to them, desperate to keep them, but they were so fuzzy now. The emotions behind them were strong, as were the generic impressions, but they were fractured and haphazard liked a dream. “Gallifrey!” She gasped, as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. The Doctor was beaming at her. “You took me to Gallifrey!”    
  
“Yup! You may feel a bit, gotcha!” Rose barely had time to register the dizzy feeling making her legs go weak before the Doctor caught her with a soft chuckle. “What else do you remember?” Dancing, she remembered lots of dancing, and the Doctor! She’d seen many of his faces. “You really liked my eighth body’s hair!”    
  
“Which one had the celery? He had a nice smile!”    
  
“The fifth one.” The Doctor swallowed as he realized he had very nearly kissed her, and he hoped she didn’t remember that. He also hoped she did. He longed for her to remember. It took all of his strength not to trail his hand along her bare back as he helped her out of the water. “What else?”    
  
“We played tag, ‘nd there were singin’ fish. Everything else is sorta fuzzy. ‘S like a dream you remember bits of, but when you try to focus it just...” she blew out a breath, and he was relieved and disappointed. “But the emotions. I remember the emotions. ‘Ve never felt you so happy! Hell, ‘ve never felt so happy. There was something, on that moon, can’t....” he handed her a towel, wanting to catch her eye, but she had closed them as she dried her hair. “I don’ have a word for it. It was good, though, really good. That was amazin’, Doctor. Thank you, for sharin’ it with me.”    
  
“Thanks for trusting me enough to do it.” Rose waited for him to turn his back before she stripped out of her wet clothes and pulled on her own. “Dressed.” She offered, trying to understand the warm feeling in her chest. It was the same feeling she got when a kiss was interrupted. They hadn’t kissed though, because she’d remember that. Besides the Doctor didn’t kiss her. Sure, he’d kiss French mistresses but not her. Normally she felt jealousy and a bit more than abandoned hurt over that memory, but it didn’t linger. In fact, it was gone as he tugged her damp hair.    
  
“Me too, come on.” The Doctor took Rose’s hand, wondering at the flush on her cheeks. Did she remember the almost kiss now? If she did she wasn’t saying anything. “I’m feelin’ a bit peckish. Want to go get some more food?” That was a pointless question, because Rose always wanted food.    
  
“Yes, feed the human!” Rose giggled, and the Doctor waved at Ruya before leading Rose out into the mid afternoon streets. Blinking in the light, he barely skidded to a stop to avoid running into a group. “Clumsy.” She snickered beside him, and the Doctor poked her ribs in retort. “You picked the excursion. I pick the food.” Her arm went around his waist, and the Doctor didn’t even bother worrying before he wrapped his around hers and squeezed her hips.    
  
“Deal, most of the restaurants were this way.”    
  
Rose was flying high at how the usual hand holding had become so much more touchy by gravitating to the intimate holding. She wondered if he knew what this looked like, what it felt like to her. To anyone watching, and to her own knowledge, this looked and felt like a date. That was nonsense, wasn’t it. “Doctor, why didn’t you correct Ruya when she called you my husband?” The question bubbled out before she could stop it. “You corrected Jarek.”    
  
“Immersion is frowned upon unless you’re in a relationship. I really wanted you to experience it, so.... that a problem?” Just like he was lying to her now. For some reason it was important for the Yeruans to think they were together. No, maybe it was important if they thought they were friends. Oh, what did it matter? He and Rose knew the truth, and besides, maybe she wouldn’t get distracted by some single pretty boy and wander off.    
  
“Nope, gonna cut in on you possibly flirting with some historically important person.” Rose meant to make that a wry tease, but it came out flirtatious. She wondered at that, but it wasn’t important. The Doctor was guiding her to a bustling section of streets lined with restaurants overlooking the sea. “Oooh, that one!”   
She pointed at a very posh looking one with a long line and tinted windows. “Think we’re gonna need this!” With a laugh, she plunged her hand into his rear pocket and retrieved the psychic paper.    
  
“Oi! If you wanted to cop a feel, Rose Tyler, just ask.” The Doctor squeaked, and she rolled her eyes at his indignant expression. _Don’t_ _tempt_ _me_ , _I_ _just_ _might_. She thought before he snatched it from hr hands. “And I’m in charge of the psychic paper. You just flutter your lashes and smile. That maitrê de looks your type.”    
  
“Arse.” The Doctor almost mentally slapped himself over the groping joke, but he didn’t. He found he couldn’t, as he approached the head of the line and sized up the Pogtrulian manning the queue. He looked human enough, barring the massive gold wings on his back and the fact that he had both sets of human like sex organs hidden under his clothes. “Hello!” Rose turned on her most flirtatious tone, and the Doctor watched as the man practically melted under it. He knew the feeling.    
  
“Yes, sorry, we don’t have a reservation, but I think you’ll find this will change that.” Rose giggled as the Doctor flashed the psychic paper, wondering what insane identities he’d come up with now.    
  
“Prince Theta, Princess Rose, please. Come in. We’ll show you to our best table! Indoors or outdoors?”    
  
“Outdoors.” The Doctor scowled at his psychic paper as Rose chimed in. He followed them inside, wondering why the hell the psychic paper put that name instead of his go to of John or James. “Theta, that’s a new one.” She giggled as she took her seat on an intimate balcony overlooking the ocean. The sound erased his frustration instantaneously.   
  
“My nickname at the Academy. We all had a weird obsession with Greecian things in our group then. I got nicknamed Theta Sigma.” Rose perked up at that. He so rarely talked about his youth. This was a fun factoid. “And no, you can’t start calling me Theta.” She ducked a bit of napkin he tossed at her with a smile.    
  
“Nah, you’ll always be the Doctor to me.”    
  
“Good.”    
  
The Doctor shifted his attention away from his smiling human, and placed an order for wine and water with the waiter.


	5. Chapter 5

Rose was just about to get in the shower when a knock at the door drew her downstairs. She turned the water off, hurrying through the massive bedroom to the sprawling suite area and flung open the door. The Doctor was standing there, holding two towels and what may be a small ice cooler. “Hey, thought we were done for the night.” After dinner, a jaunt out on this rooftop theme park that spanned six skyscrapers, and then a round of drinks where some stupid frat type boys tried to challenge the Doctor to a drinking contest and lost, miserably, they’d headed back to the resort. Rose had been too busy laughing at them to drink, but she was a bit sleepy.    
  
“Beach behind the hotel is empty, and I picked this up at the front desk.” He waved a small black controller with a smile. “Care to join me for a midnight swim?”    
  
“Lemme grab my suit!” The Doctor watched as Rose disappeared back into the bedroom, and he slipped inside the suite area, closing the door behind him. He knew, really, that he should let Rose get some sleep, but he wasn’t ready for the day to end. Yes he had promised her four more, but he had been headed out to explore the city alone and found himself circling right back. He didn’t wait long before Rose appeared in a TARDIS blue bikini, looking too sweet and gorgeous for his own good. “Ready!”    
  
“Well come on then.” Rose followed the Doctor out the massive glass doors that looked out over the beach. “Do you even wanna know what this is?” He waved the black device, and Rose stuck her tongue out at him playfully. The sand was warm and soft against her toes as they made their way down to the water.    
  
“You’re gonna tell me whether I ask or not.”    
  
The Doctor had to agree with her there, as he set the cooler with the bottle of wine, chocolate covered fruit, and glasses he’d also conveniently acquire from Aisling at the front desk. “Well, it does this.” He pressed the button and watched as the thin membrane shot up from the roof of the hotel and began blocking the artificial light that polluted the sky. In mere seconds, the only light visible was one of Yeruan’s three moons and a clear band of the galaxy.    
  
“Oh my! Doctor, ‘s beautiful.” Rose stared up as the stars dusted the sky and reflected on the water. It was absolutely breathtaking. She didn’t have much time to admire it, because the Doctor was pulling his shirt over his head, and she was mesmerized by the sight of his bare chest in the moonlight. “Hang on, you’re actually going swimming, in a swimsuit?” Normally he just kicked off his trainers and tossed his tie aside.    
  
“I promised a proper holiday, and that means an actual suit.” He gestured down at the brown pinstripe trunks. “I mean, if these don’t suffice I did bring the speedo.”    
  
“No way, just, no.” Rose threw her hands up, which earned her a rather warm laugh as the Doctor took her hand and began pulling her towards the water. She went with him, wading in, expecting it to be cold, but it was almost as warm as the Immersion pool. “So why a midnight swim?” She didn’t miss that the swim hadn’t really begun, because they were mostly standing in the water and sort of leaning against each other’s arms.   
  
“Oh, I dunno. I thought you’d enjoy the view.” The Doctor dragged his fingers through the water, casting a glance over at Rose, trying his best not to stare at the the way her skin looked flawless in the moonlight. Since their jaunt in the Immersion chamber, he’d found that his normally stalwart control was harder to maintain. He knew she didn’t feel the same, so he didn’t given in to his desire to reach out and trail his fingers along her spine. Instead, he poked her side and exclaimed. “Tag, you’re it.” And dove into the waves.    
  
Rose could have sworn the Doctor was reaching out to stroke her skin, so the playful jab and his disappearance into the water caught her by surprise. “Hey!” She dove in after him, unable to see him under the dark water. She flailed, seeking anything to grab, and her fingers brushed his leg. Resurfacing, she laughed. “You’re it!” Then she dove back down, swimming as fast as she was able, only coming up for air for a moment.    
  
The Doctor knew he was cheating, as the dim moonlight allowed him to see Rose. He grabbed for her ankle, but she kicked hard and inched out of reach. Then he felt the current at his fingers, and his hearts froze. Resurfacing he tried to yell a warning, but Rose was already screaming for him. “No!” Panic overrode that sense of safety and security, and the Doctor kicked into the current after her.    
  
Rose knew what rip currents were, but she’d never imagined she could be caught in one. Yet, there was no denying the way she was being dragged away from the Doctor. She could barely breathe, could barely keep her head above water. She could hear the Doctor screaming her name, but all she tasted was the bitter salt of the ocean. That soothing safety that had engulfed her since arrival was gone, and she was suddenly terrified.    
  
Rose knew she had faced down unimaginable horrors since meeting the Doctor. She’d taken on Daleks, Cybermen, rabid aliens, sentient AIs, but never had she eve felt this scared. In all those times, she knew, she just knew that the Doctor’s fast tongue and brilliant brain would save the day. This time, oh, this time he was running just as much of a risk as she was. She couldn’t even see him anymore, hear him scream her name. Her lungs burned, and no matter how she tried to swim diagonally towards the city lights, she couldn’t break free. Her body was screaming to keep going but also to just give it rest. The water closed over her head, and for a faint moment, Rose wondered So this is it. Then thin, strong, cool arms wrapped around her waist and she was dragged to the surface.    
  
“Rose, Rose, open your eyes.” The Doctor gasped for air, as Rose coughed and kicked weakly in his arms. Summoning all of his strength, he tried to propel them diagonally to shore, but the waves kept crashing over them. This wouldn’t work. “Rose, hang on.” They were getting further and further out, each crash of foam and water making her gasp and gag. Then, an idea hit him. “Open your mouth!” He bellowed, and then hehe completely expelled every bit of carbon dioxide in his body and sucked in as much air as his blood could handle. Then, without preamble, he latched his mouth over hers and sank under the waves.    
  
At first, Rose jerked in his arms, fighting reflexively to being submerged in the current, to being yanked under. The Doctor cradled her to him, making sure he didn’t break the seal of their lips. He kicked with his feet, hard, letting his respiratory bypass kick in. As soon as he felt Rose begin to try to surface, the Doctor exhaled a breath of filtered oxygen into her lungs. She gasped it in, and then she wrapped her arms around him and began to kick too.    
  
Rose was in wonder at the man in her arms. She knew he had a respiratory bypass system that allowed him to store extra oxygen in his body and even filter minute amounts of the water levels in his body into oxygen, but she’d never imagined he could use it like this. She sucked in each breath he gave her, holding the precious life sustaining air as long as she could. With their combined kicking, she felt them pull free of the current. It felt like it had been an eternity when he dragged them up to the surface where the both sputtered and gasped in the air.    
  
By the time the made it to shallow water, that sense of peace and security was returning. The salt of the sea was washed from her nose and mouth by that permeating aroma of the Doctor’s bedroom, and the terror that had seemed all consuming just minutes before was fading like a bad dream. “You saved me.”   
Rose felt weak, and a bit shaky, as she stumbled with with the Doctor onto sand. She was surprised they were only a football field from their towels.    
  
“I’ve said it a million times, you are literally the most Jeopardy friendly person I’ve ever met, besides myself.” The Doctor felt his hearts begin to calm as he pulled Rose into a hug. She was trembling all over, stumbling from exertion, and he squeezed her tightly. He’d almost lost her. He knew that. He knew, without a doubt that if he had been milliseconds late in responding, Rose would have been gone, but the fear was fading now. Each breath, each intake of that rich air that smelled like Rose in the TARDIS library, diluted that fear. She was safe, in his arms, whispering his name into his chest.     
  
“Come here.” Without waiting for a response, the Doctor scooped Rose up in his arms and carried her back to the towels. She looped her arm around his neck, and her warm breaths broke over his skin. When they reached their spot, he lowered her gently, and the panic had all but dissipated. To his shock, Rose started laughing. “What?! What’s so funny?!”    
  
“You’re like a living scuba tank.” Rose couldn’t help it, as she fell back onto the blankets and watched his jaw drop. She could still taste him on her lips, and it was so good. His worried look dissipated into a pout, and then a frustrated groan. “Sorry, yeah, I know. ‘S just... I had to say it!”    
  
“You almost died.” The Doctor poked her in the stomach with a smirk pulling at his lips. “Maybe a midnight swim was a bad idea.” He flopped down beside her with a heavy sigh. Rose pushed up, wondering only briefly at how quickly she had let go of her fear.    
  
“What’s in the cooler?”    
  
Rose’s question reminded the Doctor of said object, and he opened it. Carefully, he retrieved the bottle of wine, the two glasses, and container of chocolate covered fruit. “Just a little something to help us unwind after our swim, but guess it’s useless now.” Again, his mind recognized that he shouldn’t be so calm now, that he should be dragging Rose up to her room, ordering her into bed, and sitting there all night to watch her sleep. Yet, it would be so much nicer and pleasant to sit out here and watch the stars.    
  
“Useless my arse, ‘m starved. Gimme!” Rose grabbed the bowl and settled it into the sand. She was ravenous, and she eagerly popped a piece of fruit in her mouth as the Doctor snorted and uncorked the wine with the built in corkscrew. She knew she should still be quaking in shock and relief, but all she could think now was that she was alive, laying here under a beautiful sky, with the Doctor pouring her wine. “I almost died on our first date, remember? Almost burned up.”    
  
“How could I forget?” The Doctor laughed as Rose extended a piece of fruit to his lips, and he bit it gently. “Mmmm banana.” He passed Rose her glass and snagged a bit of Yeruan Starberry to press it to her lips. She took it with a pleased noise, chewing contentedly as she raised her glass. “Feeling weak or short of breath?”    
  
“Nah, I feel... Doctor I actually feel really good. ‘M a bit tired, but that’s it.” He sipped his wine, happy that she had recovered so swiftly. “So, this is a date then? I mean, stargazing, wine, chocolate covered fruit, near death experiences. Sure seems like a date you’d come up with.” Her eyes sparkled mischievously at him in the moonlight, almost golden. “Well at least the dates you give me. ‘M sure your evenings with Reinette before you came back were much more romantic.”    
  
“One kiss! I gave her one kiss, and you won’t let me live that down?!” Rose giggled as the Doctor threw his hands up in exasperation. She knew she should be much more angry about that, but the negativity just wouldn’t stick. “Okay, one kiss and one dance, but that was it! There was no romancing her. I wasn’t interested in her that way! It takes so much more than just a pretty face to make me want to do dinner and dancing and all that fluffy feel goody stuff.” Oh, now her curiosity was piqued. So the Doctor did do romance. That was news to her.    
  
“What’s it take then?”    
  
“Well they’d have to be a good person. I mean a soul deep good person, selfless, kind, and caring. Then they’d have to be clever. I’d have to see that they have their own mind, can think on their own, can make decisions on the fly.” The Doctor didn’t know why he was rambling this off, but he seemed to be having a hard time remembering where the like in the figurative sand was today. He was at least glad he’d managed to not point out he was describing her. “They’d have to love my lifestyle, to understand that I need to travel. I’d have to be able to trust them with my past, to know they wouldn’t judge me over how I ended the war. Only then, maybe, could I even think about possibly having the smallest amount of romantic feelings towards them.” Finally, he looked over at her, surprised to find she had completely ignored their wine and fruit and was staring at him as if he’d said something she needed to hear. “If they’re physically attractive, well, that’s just the cherry on the banana split then isn’t it.”    
  
“Tha’s a helluva standard for anyone ta meet.” Rose blew out a breath, stunned by his sudden outpour. The Doctor was never this open, ever. Yes, he had told her about the war, how he ended it. She’d practically made him after his the Game Station. She needed to understand why the Daleks made him so, well, so angry when hardly anything else could. Then he’d hidden from her for fifty hours before popping into the library and whisking her off to New Earth. “Guess that leaves me out of the runnin’.” She had meant it as a playful joke, elbowing him before taking a long drink of her wine and wondering why that statement didn’t mortify her.    
  
“You always sell yourself so short, Rose Tyler.” The Doctor picked up the wine bottle, and Rose bit her lip as he refilled it. He wasn’t meeting her eyes though, so she knew he was just saying it to break the tension. “You’re one of the most selfless, caring, clever, brave, understanding, and amazing people I’ve ever met. I know you know it.” For a moment, just a moment, she waited for him to add on that she was beautiful but he didn’t. What came next was far more flattering. “I never told you this, but you didn’t just save my life when we went against the Nestene, Rose. You saved me, the Doctor. You reminded me of who I was before the war. I’ve never thanked you for that.”    
  
“Well, you’re welcome.” The Doctor lifted his arm and let Rose snuggle into his side. He knew he’d said far more than he ever should let himself, and he knew he should be worried. Yet, he just couldn’t hold onto that worry. It kept slipping away, and with Rose curling an arm around his waist, it didn’t matter. Even if she obviously didn’t take the confession of how deeply she affected him, he wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to hold her. “I love our life, Doctor. I never want to leave you.”    
  
Gazing down, he found her looking up at him with such raw affection and honesty that it threatened to break his respiratory bypass. “Then don’t ever leave me, Rose. Stay with me, forever.”    
  
“Forever and a day. I promise.” Then she gasped and pointed up, as a meteor raced overhead. “Make a wish!” She giggled, and against all logic, the Doctor did. He wished Rose would lean up and press her lips to his, that she felt as deeply for him as he did for her.    
  
“What’d you wish for?” The Doctor asked, and Rose hummed happily as he rested his cheek on her hair and squeezed her softly.    
  
“Can’ tell you, or it won’t come true.” She replied. Rose wished he loved her, that he had been describing her, that his request for her to stay with him was more than friendship. She wished he’d lean down and kiss her soul right out of her body, but he just chuckled and tickled her bare ribs. After a moment of quiet, she had to fight back a yawn.    
  
“Okay, bedtime for my favorite human. Up you get. I’ll tidy this up.” The Doctor tapped Rose’s thigh before bounding to his feet. He helped her stand, unable to keep from smiling at the sleepy look on her face. “Go, now, get some sleep.” He tried to push her playfully away, but she caught his hand and squeezed her lips together. “What?”    
  
“Thanks, for this.” She waved at the towels and wine. “And for opening up, and saving my life, and the Immersion thing today. Doctor, it means so much to me.” His hearts skipped about five beats when she went up and pressed a warm, lingering kiss to his right cheek before turning away. “See you in the mornin’, Theta.” Then she was walking away giggling.    
  
Rose looked back when she was halfway to the door, expecting to see the Doctor busy bundling everything up. He was frozen on the sand, half shadowed by the dim moonlight, but she swore he was touching his cheek and looking up where the meteor had streaked overhead. When she blinked, he was walking away with his arms full.


	6. Chapter 6

Rose had woken feeling surprisingly refreshed and eager to start the day. After fixing her hair, makeup, and throwing on some shorts and a breezy top, she’d headed over fo the Doctor’s room. There’d been a sticky note in his scribbly writing telling her to meet him at the breakfast room in the main building. So that’s why she was meandering her way alone through the garden. It had been a long time since she’d woken up feeling so rested, if not a bit sore. There were voices up ahead, whispering, and through the bushes she caught sight of Aisling and another Yeruan woman. This stranger looked only a tad bit older than Aisling, so she was shocked when she heard Aisling whisper. “Mum, we are trying!” Rose froze, not wanting to interrupt what was obviously a personal conversation.    
  
“No, you aren’t. You’ve been married two months Aisling, and neither you nor Jarek have filed reports with the Committee.” The mother sounded a bit frustrated and a tad worried. “It’s the law. You know it! Ruya told me you have two perfect marks checked in right now! They even went to the Immersion. Why haven’t you shifted?”    
  
“We were going to last night, but they went out.” Aisling hissed, shaking her long, golden hair. “Plus, Mum, I’m nervous. I’ve never been with anybody besides Jarek.”    
  
“Well, it’s your cycle this week. If you don’t do it now, the Committee will start an inquiry!” The mum sighed, running a hand through her own golden hair. “You have to initiate the shift tonight, or you and Jarek will be in trouble.” Rose wondered what they were talking about. What were marks, and what the hell was the shift. “And don’t be nervous. It is just as pleasurable as joining with Jarek, sometimes even better. The bond will take care of that.”    
  
“Fine, we’ll do it tonight. I’ll be by in the morning to report to the Committee.” Aisling sighed, as her mother wrapped her in a hug. Once she disappeared, leaving Aisling staring up at the morning sky with a rather stressed look, Rose stepped around the bush and smiled. “Oh, good morning Miss Rose. I just saw your Doctor friend in the breakfast room.”    
  
“Yeah, he left me a note.” Rose was curious, but some part of her knew she should be worried too. Though the worry didn’t quite stay in her mind, there was something in her gut, maybe instinct, that told her she shouldn’t let on that she overheard such a private conversation. “You alright? You look a bit flustered.”    
  
“Yes, just a bit stressed. Running a resort isn’t as easy as it seems.” Aisling offered her a bright smile, and her eyes shifted from that breathtaking green to a slight golden color for a blink. “Did you enjoy the wine and chocolate the Doctor ordered late last night?” She held out a hand, and Rose took it. She had rather warm skin, much warmer than her own and way hotter than the Doctor’s. “He’s rather fit, that Doctor of yours. You’re a lucky woman.”    
  
“I know he is, but he isn’t mine. We told you, we’re just friends.” A warm breeze stirred the flower bushes, and the pleasant aroma of the blossoms was overpowered by that scent of the Doctor’s bedroom. Feeling quite safe, she let Aisling lead her along the path, and added without thinking. “Wish we were more though, bu’ the Doctor, he doesn’ do tha’ sorta thing.”    
  
“Oh, I think he does. He came to the front desk last night for a light filter and our finest romance package. That isn’t something just a friend would do.” Rose felt her cheeks flush, and Aisling balked for a moment. “Wait, he did take you out right? I didn’t even think to ask!”    
  
“Oh, yes! We went for a swim. I nearly drowned.” Rose bit her lip, wondering why she didn’t get that rush of panic that should come with remembering that. It flickered but faded away into the secure, content feeling. “Did he really specify romance? That doesn’t seem like him.”    
  
“Not exactly. His exact request was ‘I need something that will make her feel really impressed and really special. See I’m a bit rubbish at anything that doesn’t involve saving her from a rampaging Dalek, exploding space ships, or gas mask zombie people.’” Aisling did a surprisingly accurate impression of the Doctor, so accurate it was as if he was using her as a remote puppet.    
  
“That sounds more like ‘im.” Rose laughed out loud at the slightly confused and disturbed look Aisling threw her as they stepped through the glass doors. She guessed the woman probably thought the Doctor was joking. “Jus’ don’ ask. I can’ even begin to explain half the insane things ‘ve been through since I met ‘im.” Aisling’s hand was feeling really warm now, almost scalding, and Rose nearly jerked her fingers away. She didn’t have time, because they stepped into the breakfast room, and the Doctor was nowhere to be seen.    
  
This seemed to trouble Aisling more than it did Rose. The sweet woman released her hand, furrowing her brow intently, as if listening for something. “Have something to eat, darling. I’ll see if Jarek knows where he wandered off to.” In a flash, Aisling left Rose with the handful of other guests who were milling about a large buffet of a delicious smelling breakfast or together at tables.    
  
“Typical.” Rose tried to feel a bit irritated that the Doctor had told her to meet him here, but was nowhere to be found. She normally would be, but she just couldn’t quite hold onto the emotion. The harder she tried, the more difficult it was. It started itching unbearably, like a mosquito bite that resided in both her mind and her chest. She passed by a cracked window, that was near the breakfast buffet, and that intoxicating smell of the Doctor’s bedroom assaulted her senses, and she felt pleasantly safe. She released the irritation, and the itching stopped. “God, ‘m starved.” She sighed to nobody in particular and filled her plate.    
  
As she took her seat, she noted that she was only one of four people sitting alone. The rest were all couples, and many of them looked completely oblivious to the other guests. No, they looked positively, sickeningly in love. Most of them looked liked they’d spent the night out at the club and hadn’t bothered to change out of their clothes. The few that looked most like humans and two human couples showed the tell tale signs of drunken shagging, complete with ruffled hair, smeared lipstick, and blatant hickeys.    
  
“‘M so glad you finally told me how you feel.” The human man at the table to her right murmured adoringly to the woman who was practically out of her chair in his lap. “I’ve been in love with you for six years, but I was too scared to tell you.” Rose smiled as the woman giggled and kissed him sweetly, and she was pleased that at least somebody in the hotel has managed to break past the just friends barriers.    
  
Sipping her juice, she caught a string of conversation from a middle aged interspecies couple to her left. The woman was human, but the man was some blue alien she didn’t recognize. “You were right, Madri, we just needed a week to reconnect. I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want a divorce.”    
  
“Me either. I love you so much.”    
  
The absolute affection and adoration in his voice was somewhat reminiscent of the tones the Doctor had used during their Immersion experience and again when he asked her to stay with him forever last night. Rose let herself humor the idea that maybe the Doctor was interested in her as more than friends, as she began digging into her food.    
  
“That should do it!” The Doctor beamed as he pushed away from the computer in Jarek’s office with a grin. He’d been halfway through his second cup of coffee when the man had come through the breakfast room muttering about how his finance drive was glitching and a specialist was going to take hours to arrive. He’d eagerly offered his help. “I’ve also upgraded your connection speed by seventy-nine percent and added in a backlooping self sustaining recalibration program that should prevent any further glitching for at least sixty years.” Jumping to his feet, he pocketed the sonic and clapped the man on the shoulder.    
  
“You’re a life saver, Doctor. How much do I owe-“    
  
“I don’t accept payment!” The Doctor laughed, waving the credit stick the man hand produced away. “Always happy to help out. Mind showing me the way back to the breakfast room? I was supposed to meet Rose there, and she has a habit of getting herself into trouble when I’m not around.” He crinkled his nose, recalling the events of last night with nowhere near the amount of fear that was reasonably acceptable. “And when I’m around too, but hey, that’s part of her charm!”    
  
“Apart from that smile of hers you mean?” Jarek laughed, and the Doctor didn’t see any problem when the man sling his arm over his shoulder and slapped his bare bicep. Normally skin to skin contact with someone he didn’t know made the Doctor feel a bit skittish, but Jarek had wonderful mental barriers in place, and the Doctor got nothing but a wave of honest friendliness from his heated palm. “She is quite a stunning woman, Doctor. You’re a lucky man.”    
  
“Yeah, she is. Can’t take her anywhere without pretty boys or cavemen trying to get with her.” The Doctor knew that normally that made him jealous, but Jarek was a happily married man, as noted by the way he’d seen him and Aisling snogging each other senseless in the garden than morning. “But we aren’t a couple. We’re just friends.”    
  
“Of course, I forgot.” Jarek chuckled, and his hand grew even warmer. Something about the heat pricked the Doctor’s instinct for danger, but as they passed the main doors a rush of wind hit him with that sweet Tardis, popcorn, Rose smell and the danger faded away. “Do you two have plans this evening? Aisling and I were going out for drinks. Let me buy you a round as thanks for fixing my computer!”    
  
“I’ll check with Rose. I did promise her a reason to dress up.” The Doctor almost missed a victorious glint in Jarek’s eyes. It worried him, it truly worried him. He tried to cling to that worry, as Jarek’s palm on his bicep grew even hotter, almost unbearably hot. Then that worry began to itch, an excruciatingly persistent itch that made him cringe internally. They passed an open window, and another burst of that safe scent overwhelmed his olfactory senses. It caught him off guard, and the worry and subsequent itch vanished.    
  
“Sounds great!” Jarek squeezed his bicep, his palm so hot the Doctor almost recoiled in pain, but he didn’t have time. Aisling came into the hall, all smiles, and Jarek released him. “Ais, did you take care of that thing?”    
  
“All done, love.” The Doctor watched as Aisling waved her right hand with a giggle. “Oh, Doctor, Rose is in the breakfast room. She looked a bit miffed you weren’t there.”    
  
“Thanks.” The Doctor watched as Jarek and Aisling joined hands, and their eyes shifted in a flash of amber, gold, blue, and chocolate brown. That was odd, really odd, but he couldn’t quite figure out why. No, he didn’t want to figure out why. How strange. Oh, right, Rose was waiting. “Leave info on that club on my card.” He clapped Jarek on the back. “I know Rose will agree! Ta!” Then he made his way into the breakfast room.    
  
Rose was sitting at a table, alone, smiling like she did when she secretly read those sappy romance novels or coaxed him into watching Hallmark Christmas movies with her. She looked up, her sparkling gaze meeting his, and the urge to hug her was suddenly the most important thing in the universe. Without waiting, he crossed to her, grabbed her hands, yanked her up, and pulled her as close as he could manage. “Good morning, Rose Tyler.”    
  
“It is now!” Rose laughed, throwing her arms around him and planting another of those unexpected cheek kisses to his jaw. Feeling rather emboldened, he gave her one right back, and he preened as she flushed a brilliant scarlet and pulled back. “Even if you kept me waiting!”    
  
“Was helping Jarek fix his computer. Speaking off they invited us out for drinks tonight. Wanna go?” He knew the answer was yes without even having to add. “You can dress up fancy, like you wanted.”    
  
“Uh, yeah!” Rose slapped him playfully on the chest as she dropped back into her chair. “Lemme finish eating, and we can go explore!”    
  
“That sounds brilliant.” He couldn’t stop smiling as he snagged a bit of her bacon and dropped down next to her. Today was going to be amazing.


	7. Chapter 7

Rose stared at the bag on the Doctor’s back, as they continued their trek up the rainforest covered mountain. He was adamantly refusing to tell her what chaos it contained. She just knew that she’d been admiring some beautiful glass artwork when he’d come sprinting up, yelled “We’re going on a hike!” And then dragged her onto a hover bus that was headed out of the city. Now, an hour later, they were following markers up to something called ‘Moonlight Point.’ “Water please.” She sighed, knowing that no matter how casual those khaki pants of his looked, the pockets were bigger on the inside.    
  
“Oh, sorry here.” The Doctor cut off his ramble about the particular bird species in this area to dig a water bottle out of his pocket. “Need a rest?” Rose shook her head as she opened the cap and began drinking, the sunlight filtering through the leaves to sparkle off the sweat on her exposed shoulders and chest. He drew in a deep breath, hoping to wrangle that desire to wipe the bead trickling along her jaw away. It didn’t help, because in the fresh air of the mountain, that comforting scent was even stronger. “You sure?”   
  
“I’m sure!” Rose insisted, although she resisted the urge to pour the rest of the water on her face. The mountain air was so sticky and humid, even though it was thick with that alluring, secure smell of the Doctor’s bedroom. Out here, with the humid, pure air, it was even in the moisture that sprung off the plants leaves. “You said the atmosphere smells like somethin’ that makes you feel safe? Is it stronger for you out here too?” She inquired, handing him the empty water bottle.   
  
“Oh yes.” The Doctor snagged Rose’s hand after he pocketed the bottle, absolutely adoring how she couldn’t stop smiling despite the heat and heavy humidity. He tugged her up the trail, following the markers. They were nearly there. “It really smells like my bedroom for you?” Rose’s already exertion flushed cheeks darkened as she averted her eyes and nodded. “But you’ve only been inside it twice.”    
  
The Doctor remembered both ‘nights’ quite vividly. Rose had appeared in the console room and library respectively, in baggy pink, plaid pajamas and a plain black shirt both times, with a trembling lip and pale cheeks. In his last body, she had whispered. “The Reapers won’ stop killing you.” In this body, only days after France, but still before losing Mickey, it had been. “There’s so many Daleks.” No amount of hugging and rubbing of her back had worked to ease her back to sleep on the jumpseat or sofa, so he’d broken one of his cardinal rules, led her down the twisting halls, tucked her into his sheets, and spent the next few hours reading as she clung to his shirt and slept.    
  
“‘S embarrassin’, because bein’ in the TARDIS is safe, but your room, ‘s like I dunno, nothin’ in the universe would ever dare to try to go there, not even nightmares.” Rose chanced a look up as the Doctor made an oddly pleased noise and squeezed her hand. He was grinning somewhere between smug, flattered, and incorrigible. It made her stomach swoop. “Wha’s it smell like to you?” She knew it was probably one of those intimate questions he’d avoid, but he’d been so open yesterday and today, so light and free, like she felt those two times she’d slept in his bed. “C’mon, ‘s only fair!”    
  
“The TARDIS library, on a movie night.” The Doctor wondered if elaborating more would reveal too much. Rose looked a tad disbelieving. “When we have movie night.” This seemed to surprise her, and the Doctor almost regretted telling her when she looked down, hair falling in her eyes. Regret made his brain itch, so he let it go, just as she dropped his hand and curled her arm around his waist. “Funny, isn’t it, how we feel safest together in the TARDIS?”    
  
“For me, no, but for you, I am surprised.” Rose ducked under a branch the Doctor held up, and she did her best to hide how pleased she was that she made him, the Doctor, the Oncoming Storm, the Saver of Worlds, safe by forcing him to watch movies. Then they broke through the treeline, and she yipped in shock. They were on a cliff, where a few other people were gathered, mostly couples but a few that seemed to be the thrill seeking type adventure buddies. “Oh my god.”The view was exquisite.    
  
Below them, a massive valley revealed a winding river that flowed through the trees to the city and out to the ocean. The entire city sprawled in the distance, looking like a scale model of itself. Birds rose and dove from the forest below, their calls ringing out, and the Doctor’s hands cupped her hips. “This is nothing.” He murmured in her ear, his cool breath making her shiver despite the heat. “Come on.” She let him tug her to the cliff’s edge, where he pushed a button on the straps of the rucksack on his back. “Back to my chest.” He chuckled, and she obeyed. Straps snaked over her shoulders, around her hips, and curled around her thighs, forcing her completely flush to the Doctor’s body. She could feel his hearts, steady, unfaltering against her back, his even breathing not quite rising and falling so much as expanding against her, and the loose pants pressed against her rear. She knew blokes, and there was no denying that he was sporting a half stiffy as he curled his arms around her chest and gripped the straps. “Ready?” Was it for her or because he was an adrenaline junkie? She hoped it was the former, but knew better.   
  
“For whaaaa-“ Rose yelped, in fleeting fear, as the Doctor dove off the cliff taking her with him on the rapid free fall. She wasn’t scared, but she should have been. She knew she should be. The trees were racing up to her, like those dreams where you fall and fall and fall. Yet, she was laughing, squealing in delight, until they caught a burst of hot air that shot straight up, and an odd sound assailed her ears. They jerked still for a moment, then they were shooting up, up, up, until, with a twisting jerk and a tangy, coppery smell, they were floating. “Doctor, what the hell?!” She wasn’t afraid, because it was impossible to hold onto her fear, just shocked.    
  
“Low-grav diving!” The Doctor laughed as he squeezed Rose back to him. Her heart was racing against his palm, and he looked down to see her twist her face up and back to him. “This pack lowers the gravity level around us, so we can basically fly. Like a hot air ballon, without the balloon.” He pressed the control on the left strap, gliding them further out over the trees. Up here, in the free air, he was surrounded by that smell, reveling in that feeling of security and freedom, and loving the feel of Rose in his arms as they hung freely over the planet. “What do you think!”    
  
“This is amazing!” Rose laughed reaching up to squeeze his arms. The Doctor was still getting used to being around her without his layers of cloth armor. Each touch of her fingers on his skin threatened to break his barriers, and for the first time, it didn’t seem scary. He didn’t lower them though, didn’t read her thoughts, because he’d always promised not to. “Oh Doctor! I love this! I love when you show me things like this. I love-“ her voice caught, making his hearts race as she turned her head again. The anticipation was thick in his chest. “Being with you.” His breath caught as she reached up over her shoulder to stroke his face, her warm skin leaving shocks of joy in their wake. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”    
  
“Feeling’s mutual.” Those two words were the lamest understatement he’d ever uttered, but he wouldn’t say more, couldn’t say more. He longed to, the words waiting freely on his tongue, but he wouldn’t say it because she didn’t feel it. The Doctor knew that he should feel sad about that, but it wouldn’t stick. Instead, he kissed her hair and reached down to tickle her ribs. “Missing the view, Rose Tyler!”    
  
“Definitely wasn’” The Doctor swore he heard her say, but he must have misheard. Still she turned her face from him to draw a deep breath that pushed her back more firmly to his chest. “Well, Doctor, you’ve got me up here. Impress me more!” Who was he to back down from that challenge?   
  
“Allonsy!” Rose laughed as the Doctor shouted, grabbed the straps, knuckles brushing her chest, and they were flying. It was an experience like nothing she’d ever felt. There was no sensation of falling or even floating, like that time the Doctor had extended the TARDIS’ protective shell and drug her and Jack out into empty space above a nebula. She could feel the gravity, but it wasn’t pulling her to earth, or Yeru Minor, or Siren’s Haven, whatever the planet was called. The gravity existed only between their bodies, securing her to him, making the emotions she’d been feeling for nearly four years a physical sensation.    
  
They were both laughing, and it was a laughter Rose rarely heard from him. Even as she marveled at the birds soaring by them, the shuttles entering orbit beyond the city, and the low lying clouds that soaked her skin, she realized this laughter, this unrestrained elation the Doctor was radiating was how he had been centuries ago, before the war, before he had saved the universe, maybe even before he’d ever done anything that he carried guilt for. This was the Doctor who had stolen a TARDIS and ran away to explore the universe. She loved it, but not as much as she loved the Doctor she knew. Because, some part of her knew when they left, this Doctor would stay behind. That was okay, because he would still be her Doctor.    
  
The Doctor kept them aloft as long as he possibly could with the battery levels of their pack. He didn’t want this moment to end. He didn’t want to let go of Rose in his arms, loose the sensation that the only gravity that existed was the one keeping them pressed so firmly together. Still, he angled them slowly down to the landing zone near the cities edge, wrapping one arm needlessly around her waist as the planet’s gravity began to override the pack. If she minded his fingers splayed half on her stomach under her shirt and half on the jean shorts covering her hips, Rose didn’t say. In fact, she covered his hand, and he let himself fantasize she was trying to savor the sensation as much as him. Pressing a button, he deactivated her harness and slid the pack from his shoulders to pass it off to a worker nearby.    
  
Rose was trembling a little in front of him, that tongue touched smile that always melted his brain blazing boldly and eagerly, infectious in its exuberance. The Doctor knew he was grinning just as wildly, and he reached for Rose’s hand, already missing their personal bubble of gravity. She didn’t take it, and he almost frowned until she grabbed his face in both hands. Then, much like she, or well Cassandra, had on New Earth and much like he had in Rome, she pressed a hard, wet, closed lip kiss to his mouth. His hearts did an acrobatic routine that put the thirty eighty six Olympic gold medalists to shame, and he reached for her hips, needing to deepen it, to show her how he felt. Before he could, she yanked back with a laugh. “Thank you! That was amazing!”    
  
Rose knew kissing the Doctor was a bad idea, because he was staring at her a bit weird, something between shock and disappointment. She couldn’t hold onto the regret and embarrassment that flooded her, because, well, she didn’t know. It just wouldn’t stick. The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, licking his lips, and stuttered. “Uh, well, um, you’re welcome. I’m glad, well, pleased really you enjoyed it that much. Dunno how I’m gonna top that, but I’ll try. I’m rambling aren’t I? Yeah, um, food!” And he grabbed her hand.    
  
“Doctor, can I tell you somethin’?” Rose’s question wasn’t exactly hesitant, but more like she was uncertain how to word it.    
  
“Always.”    
  
“I really needed this holiday. I know it’s really domestic, ‘nd you don’ do domestics, but I was feelin’ really drained ‘nd unsettled.” The Doctor was relieved she’d finally admitted it to him. Yes, he hated domestics, but some aspects, like holidays, were rather enjoyable as long as Rose was by his side. “So thanks, for doin’ this for me. I didn’ even ask.”    
  
“Didn’t have to.” Rose blinked as the Doctor dropped her hand and wrapped an arm around her waist. She realized, with a jolt, that they’d both been doing that a lot the last two days. Something was different between them, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. If he was any other bloke, like Jimmy Stone or Mickey or even Jack, though she’d never actually been interested in him, she’d think this was him trying to turn a friendly holiday into a couple’s get away. “I know you. I knew you were stressed, that you have been for a few months. So have I, and I hate it when you’re not yourself. I really, really hate it Rose. I’m glad this is helping.”    
  
She chanced a glance up, as she slid her own hand along the thin black polo shirt he was wearing. “You really get me, don’ you?” He winked playfully at her, and for a moment, as they paused briefly to wait for a crossing light, Rose swore his gaze lingered on her lips. Swallowing, feeling hope rising in her chest, she inched her hand down, along his spine, over his khaki pants, and eased her fingers into his back pocket. God that man had the arse of a god. His eyebrows went up, as the light signaled them across, and she nearly pulled her hand away. That was, until he did something she didn’t expect. His hand on her hip slid back, and ever so lightly, dipped into her back pocket and rested there.    
  
“So, lunch. What’re you in the mood for?” The Doctor beamed down at Rose, feeling hope flood his chest. The look in her eyes as she sniffed the air and giggled told him everything he didn’t need to ask.    
  
“Chips!” They both laughed in unison.


	8. Chapter 8

The Doctor was nervous in the good way as he double checked his reflection. He and Rose had a pretty random afternoon, when chips turned into laser tag, which she was surprisingly good at, then being coaxed into a palm reader, which somehow led to them getting into a water fight in a fountain, resulting in a four hundred credit fine, and finally dinner at a really quaint by lovely restaurant on the beach. That was not why he was nervous. What made him nervous was how he’d almost kissed her seven times, and he was nearly certain she’d been about to kiss him five times.   
  
It wasn’t just that either. The Doctor hadn’t missed how their touching and hand holding had become so charged, well, at least for him it was. They’d always been rather touchy, but never with so much skin exposed on each end, never things like slipping hands in each other’s pockets or wiping ice cream or chocolate off the other’s lip with a thumb then licking it off, and definitely not waiting in a queue with Rose curled into his chest and playing with the bottom button of his polo while he brushed his fingers along the bare skin above the back of her shorts.    
  
Now, they were going out, to a club, together, with a married couple, for drinks. The Doctor had never actually taken Rose to a club, bars and pubs yes, but never a club. That had been Jack’s territory, keeping her occupied while he repaired the TARDIS. Clubs involved dancing and drinking and hormones and pheromones flying. Maybe this wasn’t that type of club. Jarek had left him the name of the club and the dress code for men which was dress slacks, button down shirt, and all the usual dress to impress. Feeling confident he met those requirements, he pocketed his keycard, credit stick, sonic, and psychic paper and headed out the door. He only had to knock on Rose’s door twice before it opened and he lost the ability to think.    
  
Rose’s hair was brushed back and twisted up halfway into an elegant knot, with the rest waving down her neck and shoulders. Her already stunning eyes were lined and shaded and smudged into the epitome of seduction. Her cheeks were dusted with a tantalizing amount of warm blush, and her lips were temptingly painted in delicious red with a glisten of silver.    
  
She was wearing a black halter minidress that didn’t cling to her body as much as it caressed her like a lover. He’d never been jealous of clothing before, but he was envious of the silver crystal adorned material that covered most of her breasts and dipped deep into a V that showed more of her cleavage than he’d ever seen. He forced his gaze lower, expecting the skirt to flow down, but it ended just shy of mid thigh, revealing her long, flexible, toned legs that shimmered with some lotion and ended in a pair of high black heels with a silver strap. “Blimey.” He heard himself say, when what he’d meant was ‘you look stunning’.   
  
Rose shifted under the Doctor’s wide eyed gaping. When she’d found the dress with a note from Aisling saying ‘Not sure if you have a dress for the club. You can borrow this’. She’d been momentarily skeptical. It wasn’t something she’d normally wear, but one look at her reflection had made up her mind. Luckily, she’d packed the perfect shoes to go with a black dress in her bag. Now she really had to thank Aisling, because that was the most bloke look she’d ever seen the Doctor wear, and it made her entire being vibrate in excitement. “You look amazin’, Doctor.” She managed to get out, once she took him in, and boy did he ever.    
  
The black dress slacks were as tight as his usual pinstripes, and accentuated the maroon dress shirt perfectly. That wasn’t too far from his normal dress style, except he had his sleeves rolled up crisply to the elbows, showing off his gorgeous hands and forearms. Also, his shirt was unbuttoned at the chest, and not just one, but three! The black undershirt was peeking out, along with just a hint of his dark chest hair. He’d obviously shaved and edged up those sinful sideburns, and his normally spikey hair was combed back into place like he’d worn for the coronation. She held her key card out to him, as she had nowhere to put it.   
  
“So do you. Shall we?” He took her card and gestured her out into the now twilight garden. Rose hoped the strappy but mostly backless dress did dissuade him from the heated touches they’d exchanged all day. She got her wish when his palm pressed against her spine with that cool touch. “So are you actually going to drink tonight?” She teased, glancing up. Was he staring at her breasts? The Doctor’s eyes snapped up, and his ears turned pink. Oh, he was. This was good.    
  
“You know I don’t get drunk.” The Doctor snorted in that superior way she secretly adored, and Rose had to roll her eyes.    
  
“There’s nothin’, absolutely nothin’ that even gets you tipsy?”    
  
The Doctor had never told Rose before, because he liked pretending it was all beneath him, but she was giving him that pleading look. “Not on it’s own.” He admitted quietly, pulling her closer as they approached the main building to flag down a cab. “But, if it’s mixed with ginger, real ginger, then I can get drunk. Ginger lowers my metabolism, and actually allows alcohol and psychotropic drugs to affect my system.”    
  
“Drink with me tonight then! C’mon Doctor. We’re on holiday! It’s tradition!”    
  
Flagging down a cab, he sighed. “I’ll think about it.” He was having a hard enough time, pun intended, keeping himself in check today sober. The Doctor didn’t know if he’d be able to keep up what little shards of the boundaries were in place if he was tipsy, much less drunk. It didn’t help when Rose was pressed far closer to him in this back seat than friends would be, but the normal guilt that kept him holding back just wasn’t there. Her fingers fell to his thigh and squeezed, and he had to force his blood flow north.    
  
“Constellation Night Club please.” He told the driver, a Yeruan man who looked back in the rear view mirror and chuckled. That should have worried him, he knew that, but the worry wouldn’t stay.    
  
“No, no thinking! I trusted you to do the Immersion thing and to do that anti-grav thing.” Rose knew the Doctor didn’t like to let his guard down, but this was a proper holiday. They’d made it forty-eight hours with no crisis, which meant they were in the clear. “Please, for me.” She watched as his stoic expression dissolved into resignation and preened.    
  
“Fine, three drinks. That’s it!” He bopped her nose, and Rose squealed in victory as she bounced in her seat. This bumped her into his arm, and she shivered as his hand slid onto her bare thigh. Instantly, she felt her heart stutter. She expected him to pull it away, but his eyes met hers in the dim streetlights and he squeezed her skin softly. “Why can’t I say no to you anymore?” His husky whisper made her spine tingle, and Rose swore the temperature in the cab rocketed up twenty degrees.    
  
“Because ‘m your favorite person.” Rose’s voice was thick and breathless all at once, and the Doctor moaned internally as her eyes flicked to his lips. Did she have any idea what she was doing to him? Probably not. Maybe she did. How would she react if he gave in to that temptation she called her mouth right then? Did she feel as strongly? Why would she? He was over nine hundred and besides she liked pretty boys. The negative thoughts itched his mind, and they were brushed away as the cabby cracked his window to let in the outside air. “Right?”    
  
“Too right.” Rose had never heard the Doctor’s voice like that. Was he aroused? He was capable of being hard, because she’d felt him half there on that cliff, but if he was why her? What was she compared to him, compared to Reinette or Jabe or the scores of other stunning important women who threw themselves at him but got nothing more than the odd kiss. He’d kissed her in Rome, kissed her hair a lot since last night. Maybe kisses were like hugs and handholding to him. The disappointed thoughts itched horribly in her mind. The night air stirred against her, and she let them go as she breathed it in.    
  
“Here we are! You two love birds have fun tonight.” The cabby chuckled as the Doctor passed him the credit stick. He knew he should correct him, but Rose wasn’t. So the Doctor added a tip as he signed the payment screen and let the misunderstanding on the cabby’s part stand.    
  
“Glad Aisling gave me this dress.” Rose breathed in relief as she spotted the folks lined up at a bouncer. The dress was a perfect design, if not a bit more tasteful than some. The Doctor was dressed to standards too.    
  
“What about your dress?” He asked, curling his arm around her and leading her to the front of the queue, psychic paper in his other hand. “Because that dress puts everyone else to shame.” Rose felt her cheeks flush. The Doctor rarely gave a compliment without some jab about her being human, but the jab didn’t come. “Here you are.” He beamed at the bouncer.    
  
“Prince Theta and Princess Rose. Please, go in, no cover.” The bouncer unhooked the rope, and the Doctor sent the psychic paper a nasty insult. Again, with his former nickname. Why did his mind keep putting that there? Rose was never going to let him forget this.    
  
“Aisling’s note said they’d be, aha! There!” Rose spotted their new acquaintances at a half booth near the bar and dancefloor on the third level. There were no stairs though. “How do we-“    
  
“Like this!” The Doctor pulled her over to a circular tile with half a rail, wrapped his arms around her waist, and said “third floor.” Rose yipped as the tile levitated as quickly as a lift. Then he was guiding her with a hand to her back towards Aisling and Jarek. “Sorry we’re late!”    
  
“Nonsense, the evening is early!” Jarek laughed, standing up to shake the Doctor’s hand, and Rose felt herself blush as he kissed her cheek. Aisling stood up too, gifting the Doctor with a cheek kiss and hugging Rose. The couple scooted over to let them slide in. “How was your day?”    
  
“An adventure from start to finish.” The Doctor laughed, as Rose settled in between him and Aisling. “You two?”    
  
“Nowhere near as exciting.” Jarek beamed, raising a hand to flag a waitress. “I do believe I promised you and Rose the first round. What’ll it be?”    
  
“Um, anything fruity for me. I don’t care.” Rose cut in before the Doctor could weasel his way out of his promise, covering his mouth with a hand. “And he’ll have whiskey mixed with ginger ale. It has to be real ginger too, not imitation.” She felt his growl against her palm. She stuck her tongue out at him.    
  
The Doctor poked Rose in the leg under the table, but he couldn’t get mad. He had said he’d drink. Almost instantly, Aisling and Rose were gushing over their adventures for the day, and he was talking to Jarek about the way Yeru Minor had changed since becoming a pleasure planet. The conversation was so relaxed and warm, that the Doctor didn’t pay attention to the loud music or flashing lights. He just enjoyed his drink and the way Rose kept squeezing his knee. He had to admit, as much as he loved running headlong into danger, sometimes things like this were just as fun.    
  
Rose liked Aisling. The woman was her age, by cultural standards, in her early twenties. She’d learned they aged slower than most humanoids, and she was actually forty-seven by Yeruan years. The Doctor and Jarek were hitting it off so well, they both barely noticed when Aisling half shouted over the music. “Let’s go dance.” So she threw back her second drink as the Doctor sipped his third whiskey and ginger ale, and let Aisling drag her onto the dance floor.    
  
“You ‘nd Jarek are so beautiful together.” Rose laughed, as she and Aisling moved together in typical platonic girl friend manner. It was the kind of dancing that said they were having fun but definitely not looking for a man to interrupt. “How long were you together before you got married?”    
  
“Seven years!” Aisling giggled. “I think humans call it high school sweethearts.”    
  
“Yeah!” It was obvious to Rose that she loved her husband, and he loved her back. Anytime she looked at the table, Jarek was watching his wife with that newly wed love struck awe. “He worships you!”   
  
“Like the Doctor worships you.” Aisling winked knowingly at her. Rose opened her mouth to protest, as Aisling reached out to brush her hair from her face. “My people are emotional empaths. His love for you is stronger than almost anyone I’ve felt.”   
  
“Yeah right!” Rose had to laugh at that. Okay, so even if he found her attractive, which he didn’t. He couldn’t love her? Could he? He’d told her what she’d need, but she didn’t think she’d met the criteria. “He’s over nine hundred. I’m twenty-three. There’s no way-“    
  
“That he loves you like you love him?” Aisling snagged her waist, pulling her close as they moved to the beat. “He’s broadcasting it so vividly I can feel it all the way over here.” Her words made Rose’s head spin, and Aisling leaned in to whisper as softly as the music would allow. “And he can’t stop looking at you, can he?” Rose made to turn her head, but Aisling hissed. “Don’t look, just, glance out of the corner of your eye.”    
  
Rose did just that, and she swallowed hard as she caught the Doctor openly observing her, slowly sipping his drink, until his gaze zeroed in on her swerving hips and his hand disappeared under the table in an unmistakable adjustment of his trousers. “Oh... oh!” She gasped, as Aisling laughed. The Doctor wanted her, and Rose couldn’t believe it.    
  
“So why haven’t you told your Rose you love her?” Jarek asked smoothly, interrupting the Doctor’s question about whether or not Yeruans had developed shape shifting abilities. “She obviously loves you.” It caught him off guard, which wouldn’t have happened if his head wasn’t buzzing with alcohol.    
  
“No she doesn’t.” He scoffed, casting a glance over at the person in question, who was moving very, very, dangerously seductive on the dance floor. If she dipped her hips like that again, her dress would ride up. His trousers tightened dangerously. This! This is why he didn’t drink! Damn it. “Rose just sees me as a friend. She’s the kind of woman who goes after what she wants. If she wanted me, she’d make a move.”    
  
“So you do love her?” Jarek chortled, taking their fourth drinks from the waitress. The Doctor accepted his, attempting to pay, but Jarek waved his hand away. “Don’t deny it, Doctor. My people are emotional empaths. I can feel your love for her, and every time she looks at you, hers is so strong I can feel it all the way over here.”    
  
“Emotional empaths?” That was surprising. It wasn’t as common as telepathy, and luckily nowhere near as dangerous. “I didn’t know they existed outside the Ardonian Star Belt.” The Doctor had no reason to worry. The only people at risk from emotional empaths were the empaths themselves. They couldn’t project emotions, just feel them, sense them, and it was rare to find any that mingled with other races.    
  
“Don’t change the subject. Come on, you can tell me. We’re both young men. I’ve got my beautiful wife. Why haven’t you pursued your Rose?” Jarek slapped his shoulder with an encouraging smile.    
  
“I’m nine hundred and three.” The Doctor watched as Jarek’s jaw dropped. “Rose is twenty three. Still think she loves me?” That wasn’t the only reason, but no matter how tipsy and safe and secure he felt, he was not bringing up the Time War. If one minor negative thought itched, he did not want to deal with what that might do. “And besides, she just loves me as a friend. I know Rose, Jarek. I’m not her type.”    
  
“Then why can’t she stop staring at you?” Jarek leaned in, and the Doctor almost looked, but he hissed and whispered. “Corner of your eye. Go on.” The Doctor glanced slowly over at Rose, and found her watching him openly, her lower lip caught in her teeth, hand sliding down her chest to her stomach, eyes wild with adoration and possibly desire. He reached for his glass and took a long drink to cool his throat. “Right now, she’s radiating love and desire, Doctor. She doesn’t have it when she looks away.”    
  
“Don’t violate her privacy in front of me.” The Doctor snapped, the protective irritation flashed and itched in his mind.    
  
“I apologize. I forget not every species is as open as we are.” The irritation dissipated as Jarek held up his hands. Knowing it was a bit spiteful, he touched Jarek’s bare hand and did a quick flick of his forethoughts. The man was being honest. He thought he was helping break the ice. “Forgive me, Doctor.”    
  
“I get a bit protective of her is all.”   
The Doctor sighed, feeling a twinge of guilt at snapping and then reading his thoughts. “Apology accepted. Just, don’t tell her. She slaps like her mum.” He tossed back his drink, and leaned back in the booth. The Rose, library, popcorn smell was mixing pleasantly with the alcohol, and he scanned the other dancers as he tried to will his rebellious body into behaving.   
  
Jarek tensed beside him, and the Doctor looked up. A human man had approached Aisling and Rose, and he was obviously trying to pull them both. The Doctor didn’t need to feel protective, because the man was nowhere near Rose’s league when she lowered her standards. Still, he caught Jarek’s eye as the Yeruan man stood. “Coming.”    
  
“Oh yes.”    
  
Rose shot Aisling a highly annoyed look at Steven or Stefan or whoever was rattling off about how his dad was renting him some pent house suite across the city and they could move the party there. Aisling rolled her eyes, as the moron was not getting their subtle hints that they weren’t interested. She was about a millisecond away from slapping him, when cool but firm arms wrapped around her from behind and the Doctor leaned down to kiss her cheek.    
  
“Rose, love. Is this stupid ape bothering you?” She didn’t have to look up to know that he was giving the guy his trademark ‘beat it, moron’ look. They’d played this game in bars, pubs, and the random gala or two.   
  
“Nothing a good slap can’t fix.” She laughed, as Jarek towered behind Aisling and sneered at the man. In a blink he was gone. The annoyance averted, Rose turned and smiled up at her protective Doctor. “Thanks, ta. Gonna dance with me now?”    
  
“I don’t know how to dance like this!” He gestured at Jarek and Aisling who had backed away and were moving to the music as if oblivious to the crowd.    
  
“It’s easy. Here.” Rose spun her back to him, pulling his hands to her hips. “Now, just move with me.” The music had changed to a heady, bear that was unmistakably mimicking the deep, sensual rhythm of passionate love making. Her heart was pounding, head spinning from the alcohol and the Doctor’s touch as he gripped her hips and moved behind her.    
  
They weren’t fully flush together, that breath of space he always kept when they danced at formal balls or just for fun in the galley separating them. Rose couldn’t take that, not now, not after the last two days. She pressed back against him, rocking her hips, and her stomach clenched in shock and anticipation when she felt him hard, straining against her rear. He gave a mixture of a grunt and a groan behind her, and his fingers flexed on her hips. “Doctor.” She breathed, knowing full well he could hear her over the music.    
  
“We should...” The Doctor lost his words as Rose rolled her body back into him again. He knew she could feel it. He couldn’t get his body under control, not with her like this, not with the ginger and whisky in his system. He knew he had stopped dancing, but that was because he was about to drag her off to that damn emergency stair well and give in.    
  
“Go get me another drink ‘nd rest my legs. These heels are murder.” She pulled away, turning to smile up at him. The Doctor couldn’t miss the rejection in her eyes or her words, despite the brave smile and the way she kissed his cheek and dragged him back to the table. The Doctor labeled himself an idiot and a coward as he let her.    
  
“Think I’ll just have a virgin banana daiquiri.” The Doctor told the waitress, and Rose ordered just a water. The moment was gone, and she blamed herself. Aisling was wrong. The Doctor didn’t feel that way for her. It should have hurt, especially with how tipsy she was, but Rose couldn’t be. The sadness wouldn’t last. Especially not when the Doctor tugged her into his side and kissed the top of her head.    
  
By the time they’d finished their non-alcoholic drinks, Aisling and Jarek returned, saying they hated to leave but pressing matters at home had come up. The Doctor knew what those pressing matters were when they paid their tab and were half groping each other as they walked away. He and Rose left too, and the cab ride back was nowhere near as charged as before.    
  
He didn’t trust himself to speak, because the alcohol was really kicking in now. He was afraid that if he uttered more than a few words to Rose’s comments that she should get Jackie a gift tomorrow, that he’d just blurt out how much he wanted Rose. How much he loved her. If Rose felt that way towards him, she wouldn’t have stopped dancing. That was fine. He could accept that.    
  
Rose stared up at the Doctor as he pulled her to a stop at her door and surrendered her keycard. She took it, unable to break away from the undefinable expression on his face as he gazed down at her in the moonlight. If it was any other bloke, she would have thought he was angling for a goodnight kiss. This was the Doctor though, and he didn’t feel like that. He probably knew she did now, but he had wanted to stop. “See ya at breakfast?” Blimey, did she have to sound so disappointed.    
  
“Rose... I...” The Doctor stroked her arm softly, stepping in so close Rose could feel his hearts beats vibrating his shirt. Those milk chocolate eyes were so soft as they sparkled down at her. His head dipped, she thought, but before she could press up he was tugging her hair playfully and his usual distance away. She’d imagined it. “I had fun. See you at breakfast.” And then she was alone at her door as his shut.    
  
“Bloody Time Lords.” Rose groaned, swiping her keycard and stepping inside. “Stupid Rose. Stupid! He isn’ like that. He doesn’ want you!” She managed to chastise herself in route to the bedroom before the itching started in her mind. Drawing in a breath, she kicked off her heels and walked over the the window that faced the beach and opened it. That Doctor bedroom smell washed over her, mixed with the sea air, and the itch dissolved into relaxation. Kicking her heels off, she contemplated a bath. That’s when she heard the knock.    
  
“Coming!” She called, crossing back into the room and looking through the peephole. The Doctor was there, hands in his pockets. She opened the door, and offered him her best smile. “Miss me alr-“ The look on his face silenced her words. It was blazing, fierce, confident, assured. It was the look he wore when he’d figured out exactly how to save the day, except, his eyes weren’t wild with triumph, they were dark and heavy with desire. “Doctor.”    
  
“I can’t do this anymore, Rose. I can’t go one more day pretending I don’t love you.” She gasped, as he stepped in swiftly, wrapped her in his arms, and kissed her like a man starved. Heart soaring, Rose curled her fingers in his shirt and yanked him back into the room. She moaned into his tongue as he kicked the doors shut and pressed his hard length into her hips.    
  
The Doctor tossed his shirt aside as he toed off his Converse. What had he been thinking? “Stupid, stupid idiot!” He growled, ruffling his hair as that itch in his mind came with the negative thoughts. He tugged his undershirt out of his waist band. “Rose doesn’t want you. You don’t deserve her, not after everything you’ve done.” He needed to clear his thoughts, and the empty beach beyond the hotel seemed a good place. Crossing back into the suite, he went to the glass doors and opened them.    
  
The warm Tardis library, Rose, popcorn smell waved over him, mixed with the salty sea air chased the itch away, and he relaxed. Why was he so upset over this? He could think clearly if he laid down and metabolized this damn alcohol. Everything was so unfocused. He hated letting himself feel drinks. Then someone knocked on his door. Turning, he crossed to the door and opened it without looking. Rose was there, barefoot, her face set in that way she got when she’d done something or come up with something clever that he missed. “Hello, did you need-“ Her eyes met his, and the intensity behind them stole his breath. Many a woman had turned that look on him, but it was the first time Rose had worn it. That was desire, unmistakable, and glorious. That tempting dress nearly distracted him. “Rose?”    
  
“I can’ do this anymore Doctor. I can’ keep pretendin’ that ‘m not in love with you.” Her words were everything he’d never dreamed he’d hear, and he felt his hearts soar. Then she was plunging her hands into his hair, kissing like she was afraid he would disappear. Groaning, the Doctor wrapped his left arm around her, pulling her into the room, and he slammed the door shut as their tongues met in a mind blowing dance.    
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Rose’s Dress](https://www.luulla.com/product/372770/sexy-lady-hanging-neck-dress-bag-hip-tight-black-club-party-backless-dress)   
>  [Rose’s Shoes](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/82894449364315947/)


	9. Chapter 9

Something was off, Rose knew that. She knew it as the Doctor freed the pins holding her hair in place and ran his fingers through it. His heated lips were insistent as they closed over her neck with a promising bite and suck. She couldn’t figure out what, and her mind itched. “Doctor.” She moaned as her fingers freed the last button of his shirt, revealing his bare chest. “‘M I dreaming?” Maybe that was it.    
  
“No, love. This is real.” He murmured, and with a dance of expert fingers, her dress was undone around her neck. Pleasure coursed through her as he pushed the dress down. Rose couldn’t stop herself from fisting that glorious hair in her hands and tasting his lips again. “I need you. Don’t you get that?” The Doctor murmured, as he backed her into the wall. His shirt hit the floor as she kicked her dress aside.    
  
She stared up into his eyes, as the scent of his bedroom carried through the open window, and the itch stopped. Oh, how she loved him. “I love you.” She whimpered, her mind swirling in delight as his hands moved over her skin, cupping her breasts. She keened in pleasure as he cupped them, thumbs brushing over both nipples. The heat of his touch stoked the arousal that had been simmering low in her belly all night. Something was off.    
  
“I love you too.” The Doctor groaned, and his lips closed over her right breast. Rose cried out in approval, fumbling for his trousers. She got the button and zip undone, though it was hard to focus with the way his teeth and tongue were sparking ecstasy down her spine. “Touch me.” He pleaded, sliding his hands down to her knickers, tugging the red lace. Her mind was nudging her, a demanding itch.    
  
“Bed.” Rose managed to gasp, and she watched as he kicked his pants aside. Silver boxers tented invitingly as he stepped back, and her stomach clenched in anticipation. The breeze carried into the room, and she giggled in delight as the Doctor seized her thighs, lifting her effortlessly, carrying her across the room and tossing her onto the sheets. “My Doctor.” She watched him in the dim light that poured through the ensuite door. He was staring at her like he was gazing at the most stunning piece of artwork.    
  
“My Rose.” The Doctor was over her in a flash, shifting her up onto the pillows. His burning lips covered hers, and Rose was drowning in pleasure. He stretched his long, lithe body over her, fingers ghosting along her skin. “You’re so beautiful. I don’t think you know what you do to me.” She arched up into his touch, clutching his firm arms to remind herself that this was real, this was happening. “I want to show you.”    
  
“Please!” Rose knew, instinctively, that when he said those words he meant telepathically. She readied herself to let him in, but he didn’t initiate the contact. Something was wrong. Her mind was trying to tell her, but the pleasure warred with the worry, scratching the itch, shooing it away. This was the Doctor. She could smell him in the air, feel his heart racing against her chest, and he slotted himself between her thighs. His hard length rocked against her, hot lips trailing her neck, and she wrapped her arms and legs around him. “More, Doctor. Please. I need you too. I need this.”    
  
“Whatever you need.” He groaned into her chest, the thin materials that separated them pushed through her folds, rocking against her in the most delightful way. He chuckled at her keen, and Rose rocked up to meet him. “You’re already soaked.” He chuckled, and his lips closed around her breasts again. Rose saw stars, felt his fingers pulling at the red lace on her hips, sliding them languidly down. His tongue twirled, blazing against her skin.    
  
“You did it to me, starin’ at me all night, touchin’ me, teasin’ me.” She panted, trailing her hands along his smooth back. Smooth? There should be something, something was missing. Her mind itched, warning her, but the Doctor tugged firmly at her knickers, trying to get her to slide them off. She wanted to lift, to unwrap her legs, but that damned itch in her mind. Something was wrong! His teeth pulled at her nipple, almost, just slightly too demanding. She whined, and he murmured an apology. Wrong!    
  
“Doctor.” Rose wriggled under him, which only resulted in another pleasurable rock of his length into her. The itch nearly dissipated. Wrong! Wrong! Her heart was pounding, his bedroom smell surrounded her. She scrambled desperately at his shoulders, wanting more, fearing more.    
  
“Relax, Rose. I’m here.” He kissed her gently, so sweetly, sucking at her lower lip. It was so wonderful. WRONG! Her mind was on fire, like an army of ants was biting away at it. His heart pounded against her chest, his smooth shoulder blades tensing under her fingers, and his hot breath broke over her face. Heart, hot, smooth, wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!    
  
“You aren’t the Doctor!” Rose cried, pushing at the man over her, panic tearing at her mind as he froze. “You’re skin is hot. You’ve only got one heart, ‘nd you don’t have the mole on your shoulder!” She accused, and he was scrambling off of her, eyes wild in shock. Her mind itched in agony, as she scrambled to sit up, grabbing at her head. He was blocking the door, hands raised, and there was something in his stance. “Jarek?! You’re Jarek!”    
  
“Yes, Rose. Listen. I can explain.” His voice was filled with fear, maybe apology. Rose rolled off the bed, oddly aware she was clad only in her knickers, as she clung to that itch and searched for a blunt object to use as a weapon. “I have to. It’s the law. Aisling and I can’t have our own child until she...” Rose scooped up her shoe and  charged at him. He caught her swiftly, knocking the shoe aside and pinning her to the wall. “Stop! I won’t hurt you!” In the Doctor’s voice, the words sounded so right. She automatically relaxed, but her mind itched.   
  
“No!” She struggled against his arms, trying to land a kick. “Doc-“ She tried to yell, but Jarek covered her mouth firmly, but gently. Rose tried to bite him, but he cupped his palm away from her lips.    
  
“Listen! It’s the law! Our species is dying. Our women must breed with offworlders. We can’t have our own child until Aisling has one with an offworlder first!” This was insane. Rose tried to knee him, but he blocked it. “I won’t hurt you. Please, if I let you go, let me explain.” There was an earnest honesty in his voice. “I won’t touch you again. I’ll say my piece and leave. Okay?” She nodded, trying ti make sense of his word, struggling to hold onto the itch. The itch was the truth. It told her danger. How had she missed it? The Doctor, no Jarek, lowered his palm and stepped back.    
  
“Why do you look like the Doctor?” She blurted out, earning her a perfect impression of the Doctor’s contrite look.    
  
“Yeruans are shape shifters. Males can only shift when our bond mates shift. Our women shift into the image of the person their mark loves most. We pick out couples or friends who love each other but haven’t said. Males, we shift into the man. Then we get them alone. For me, for men, it’s the pleasure of feeling our bond mate in pleasure. For the women, they need to breed, to expand our species.” Jarek’s words were almost desperate, and Rose balked as he clutched his chest and moaned. “Oh, my love.” He murmured, and Rose’s stomach twisted as his silk boxers stirred. “Sorry, she’s.... he’s very good with his tongue.”    
  
“His tongue....” Rose’s whole body went numb as she heard a thump from the wall in the other room, the wall that separated her suite from the Doctor’s bedroom. “Doctor!” She didn’t care that all she had on were knickers, as she raced from the room, tearing open her door. Jarek was right behind her. “Doctor!” Rose pounded on his door, and her mind itched in panic as she heard a giggle and a feminine moan inside.    
  
“Rose, stop! She has, mmmm she has to! It’s the law.” Jarek pleaded, but he didn’t touch her. “This is the last day of her fertile cycle. She has to breed tonight or we face jail!”    
  
“Time Lords are sterile!” Rose shouted at him, as that odd bit of information the Doctor had once told her flooded into her mind. “He can’t knock her up!” She pounded on the door again, and Jarek paled. It was the perfect impression of the Doctor’s ‘I should not have pushed that button’ face. It was then she noticed he’d pulled his pants on, and he had a keycard in his hand.    
  
“Move.” Jarek ordered, and she stepped aside. The door lock flashed green, and Rose threw it open. She raced inside, heart sinking, mind itching as she heard the Doctor groan and a familiar sigh float from the bedroom. She skidded into the room, and stumbled in shock.    
  
The Doctor was in the bed, wearing nothing but a pair of TARDIS blue boxer briefs, as he bit and sucked lovingly at the bare skin just below a woman’s navel. Rose felt her world turn as the blonde hair fell from the woman’s face. It was her. She was naked under the Doctor, as he trailed his fingers along her thighs. “Doctor! That’s not me!” She managed to squeak, and he jerked his head up. “That’s not Rose. I’m Rose! I’m Rose!”    
  
“Bloody hell!” The Doctor jerked back, as he scrambled off the bed, his eyes flailing in panic and danger. Rose saw him land on Jarek, who was wearing his body. “Rose? Where did we meet?”    
  
“Basement in Henricks!” Rose exclaimed as Aisling gaped in shock. The Doctor, her Doctor, surged forward, grabbed her arm, and tucked her behind his back.    
  
“You’ve got thirty seconds to explain before I do something really unpleasant.” He growled, and Rose knew he meant it.


	10. Chapter 10

Rose was kissing him, and the Doctor forgot momentarily how to breathe. She was so warm, so soft in his arms. It was everything he had dreamed of, and more. “Oh, Rose. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.” He whispered, pulling back to cup her face. The warm sea air blew in, suffusing him in that rich, safe scent. Rose stroked his face, eyes shining with love and hope. “How much I need you.”    
  
“I’m here, Doctor. I’m yours. I’m only yours.” She sighed, sliding her hands up his chest, dancing her fingers over the black undershirt. His hearts flipped. “Kiss me again, please.” Well if she insisted.    
  
Laughing out in delight, the Doctor fed his addiction to her lips without reservation. Something was off, in the taste of her tongue, but his alcohol laden mind batted at the itch and reached for the happy. “How far, Rose. How far can I go?” He longed to touch her, to finally feel her against him, skin on skin, breaths mingling, maybe, if he was lucky, her thoughts melding with his as they joined together.    
  
“All the way, Doctor. Take me to the stars.” Rose melted into him, dragging one of his hands up to the halter of her dress. “Make love to me, please. I need it. I need you.” Finally, oh Finally he had her permission, and with a rush of joy, he unclasped her dress and pushed it down her curves. She was perfect. His shirt went over his head, and Rose’s hot tongue laved across his clavicle. His body surged in response, instantly hard.    
  
“My Rose.” The Doctor slid his hands down her curves, and her skin was blazing like the sun, like when she had burned with the Time Vortex. His mind was itching. Something, damn it, something was off. She kissed him again, and desperate, playful, needy thing. The wind billowed in the room, and his mind wavered from the alcohol in his system. The itch faded. “Bed.” He laughed, seizing her up by her thighs, reveling in the husky squeal of delight Rose gave, and her legs wrapped around his waist.    
  
“Best idea you’ve had all day.” Rose practically purred, and her lips were on him again. He carried her through to the bedroom, stumbling as his increased hearts rates pumped the alcohol more vigorously into his brain. His mind itched again, missing something. What? What was he missing. Rose slid her lips to his neck, and he barely managed to not trip over his shoes. That safe smell surrounded him, infusing the room. The itch was gone. “I love you.” She murmured into his ear.    
  
“I love you.” He confessed, lowering her to the sheets. Her hands flew to his trousers, fingers burning against his skin. She was so hot. Wrong! No, wait, human’s body temperature increased with arousal. Not wrong. He kicked his pants off, falling over her with a laugh when she tugged playfully down. “Greedy girl. Be patient.” He scolded her teasingly. “I want to savor this.” Rose hooked a leg over his hips, and he realized she was bare. “No knickers? Under that dress? Feeling daring were we?”    
  
“Very.” She preened, and he rocked into her. Rose was positively dripping, and it soaked through his boxer briefs delightfully. “More, Doctor, please!” He tasted her lips again, memorizing her bare curves with his hands. Her skin was so smooth, so sweet under him. Wrong! The itch in his mind blazed to life, annoying him. “Don’t stop.” Her desperate plea, as she pushed his head down to her breasts caught him off guard, and the itch faded as the alcohol made his head spin. Maybe he should focus on metabolizing it out.   
  
Rose rocked her hips up to him, and he groaned at the wet friction. Her breasts heaved, centimeters from his lips. The Doctor indulged in the fantasies he’d harbored, closing his lips around the right one. The dusky nipple pebbled against his tongue, and Rose shivered in delight. A strange scent weaseled into his nostrils as he swirled it with his tongue. A shout echoed vaguely in the background. Wrong! That damned itch.    
  
“Yes! Gods yes! More!” Rose’s nails scraped against his scalp, as she writhed under him. Gods? Wrong! He paused, trying to focus past his tipsy spinning, past the itch. A gust of wind carried in the door, and it smelled of safety, of Rose in the TARDIS. He groaned, sucking eagerly at her breast, the itch fading. His Rose had such sensitive breasts. Good, because he liked how they felt in his mouth. Swirling his tongue again, he growled as she rutted up into him.    
  
“Mmmm let’s see.” He chuckled, releasing the right one and moving to the neglected left. He sucked it into his mouth, teasing it with a swirling flick, nipping playfully with his teeth. Rose crooned her approval, arching under him, spurring him on. So much of her body was neglected. Well he’d fix that. “Think this one’s my favorite. I’ll decide later.” He winked at the look of shocked pleasure on her face. “Now, let’s see how many more new Rose noises I can learn.” He eased himself down her body, tasting her blazing skin. A muffled thud distracted him momentarily. Wrong! The itch was back. “Rose?” He blinked up at her, trying to focus.   
  
“Taste me, Doctor.” She breathed, pushing his head down her body. The sea breeze fluttered into the room, and Rose gave him that delicious, tongue touched smile. “Please.” The itch faded, and he continued his journey down, chuckling as each nip and suck and kiss he planted on her torso elicited a variety of needy, desperate sounds from her. Her arousal was heavy, heady, so musky as he reached her navel. Wrong! Wrong! That itch was burning in his mind.    
  
“Don’ be a tease! Need to feel you! Doctor!” Rose writhed under him, as he registered someone knocking on a door. The sound distracted the itch. The alcohol made his vision swim. Maybe he shouldn’t do this while half drunk? Rose tugged at his hair, pushing him lower. She sighed his name again, and he trailed his tongue across the line of her pelvis, her bare, wet folds so hot and ready against his throat. Bare?    
  
Hadn’t he overheard her telling her friend Shareen two weeks ago that she was in no way ever getting a wax, that she preferred to stay neatly trimmed? Hadn’t he altered his fantasies with that image? Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! A strong gust of wind filled the room, that safe Rose, TARDIS, popcorn smell erasing the itch, his doubts. His head swam as his blood surged harder south, making him pulse.    
  
The Doctor just had to slide lower, just a bit, and he could finally taste that wet heat. He sucked at her skin, just below her navel, sliding his fingers down her thigh, angling for her dripping center. WRONG! The itch blazed as the unmistakable mental shock of Rose’s fear, her panic, her utter horror slammed into his barriers. Footsteps filled the room, breathless panting. The itch burned his mind, and he knew. He knew the woman beneath him was not Rose. He clung to the itch, desperately, letting it fill his mind, and he was just about to release her skin and throw the accusation when a stunned squeak filled the room, confirming his doubts.   
  
“Doctor! That’s not me!” He jerked his head up, blinking in shock to see Rose clad in nothing but red lace knickers, four love bites adorning her neck and chest, standing side by side with a shirtless, remorseful, mirror image of himself. The man had two bite marks of his own, one on his neck, one on his chest, and Rose’s red lipstick smeared on his chin and down his neck. “That’s not Rose! I’m Rose! I’m Rose!” She pleaded, tears in her eyes.    
  
“Bloody hell!” He shouted, scrambling off the bed, looking between the two Rose’s, his doppelgänger, and he tried to focus past the alcohol and desire fueled haze. “Rose, where did we meet?!” He needed to be sure that was her. He needed to know that was his Rose, his beautiful, wonderful, terrified Rose.    
  
“Basement in Henricks!” The Rose with his doppelgänger cried, and the Doctor clung to the itch in his mind. He understood what it was now. It was his instincts, that part of him that kept him suspicious, kept him closed off, kept him alive and fighting. He grabbed her arm, pulling him to her, as his thoughts finally pieced the puzzle together. It was Aisling and Jarek. They were shapeshifters, and for some reason they had decided to shift into himself and Rose.    
  
Judging by the fading arousal and desire radiating under Rose’s fear, Jarek had been seducing her, masquerading as him, as the Doctor, but why? He needed a reason, because the Oncoming Storm was rattling at its cage. That rage and destruction he’d locked away two bodies ago was about to be unleashed. Jarek had touched Rose, had tricked her, had maybe even been inside of her. That would not stand. To top it off, he’d done it wearing his body. Tucking Rose safely behind him, feeling her pounding heart against his arm, he leveled his coldest fury on the couple.    
  
“You’ve got thirty seconds to explain, before I do something really unpleasant.” The Doctor meant every word, because when it came to him, he could forgive being violated. Violating his Rose, well, he might mistake them for Daleks instead of Yeruans.


	11. Chapter 11

Rose didn’t bother rolling the sleeves up on the soft shirt the Doctor had retrieved from his bag with one hand while Aisling and Jarek requested a moment to shift before explaining. She fiddled with the sleeves in her palms, trying to step around to stand beside the Doctor. He kept pushing her back behind him, his eyes never moving off the couple, not when they’d shifted, not when Aisling pulled the dress on. “Doctor.”    
  
“No.” The Doctor pushed Rose back for the fifth time in a minute. He knew Rose could hold her own. He’d seen her do it, time and time again. He’d seen her face down Daleks, Slitheen, Cyberman, homicidal steampunk robots, and all sorts of alien monsters. He knew she didn’t need protecting, but if Jarek was even within finger brushing distance, he was going to throw the man into an event horizon. “I don’t want you anywhere near him. Stay behind me.”    
  
“I didn’t hurt her.” Jarek insisted, as Aisling tied her dress.    
  
“You violated her!” He snarled, that itch now so powerful in his mind it was only a level below regeneration on the pain scale. Old feelings, repressed burning that he had locked away so many years ago was threatening to breakfree. The Warrior was picking his chains, threatening to overthrow the Doctor. “You dared to use my face to do it! If I was a hundred years younger... Oh, the things-“ Rose’s hand pressed into his, lacing their fingers, and he swallowed the cold fury. She was scared enough as it was. She had to be, given how tightly her mental barriers were locked down. Rose did not need to see who he was before her.    
  
“Can we all just sit and talk now?” Aisling’s voice was trembling, soft and meek as opposed to her assured confidence before. Rose didn’t know why. It wasn’t like they could try to down play this.    
  
“You shut the fuck up.” Rose wanted to rip her perfect hair off. The fact that Aisling had used her body, taken advantage of the Doctor while he was half drunk, had somehow managed to deceive him, made her dangerous. If the Doctor wasn’t there, Rose would be making sure the woman wouldn’t touch anyone for months. “Explain why you did this. It better be the truth, because the Doctor is not someone you want as your enemy.”   
  
“Neither is Rose.” The Doctor was protecting her physically, yes, but he also wasn’t going to leave them with the impression she was a weak human. “Now, from the beginning.” He kept Rose firmly behind his back, never ripping his eyes off the pair.    
  
“Our laws say-“    
  
“No, before the law!” Rose nearly jumped at the venom in his voice.    
  
Jarek drew a deep breath, as Aisling moved in closer to him. “A hundred and sixty years ago, we developed intergalactic travel. When we welcomed our first official interplanetary emissary, they accidentally introduced a virus to our people that turned into an epidemic and then planetary wide plague.” Rose managed to peer around the Doctor. Jarek was holding Aisling, with her face pressed into his chest. She snorted at the fact that the woman was acting like she was upset. “Barely touching the stars, and we had to quarantine our planet.”    
  
“Happens almost every time a new planet ventures out, boohoo.” The Doctor was too livid to be sympathetic right then.    
  
“Well do they decimate always decimate almost half the planet and turn thirty percent of the next generation sterile?” Jarek half shouted. “The only ones who weren’t sterile were the ones who had the ability to shape shift, but then we were facing an inbreeding crisis.” The Doctor glowered at him, trying to understand what this had to do with this couple stealing their shapes and doing things that made him see red. “We tried cloning, in vitro, all of that, but it was still inbreeding. Birth defects were at an outrages high! So, the government decided to move all Yeruan’s to the cities and turned the planet into a pleasure oasis. They encouraged cross breeding with other species, but then the off world women were taking the babies with them, and the Yeruan women were subjected to jealous spouses or lovers when they found out their men had an affair.”    
  
“What’s that got to do with the law?” Rose growled, her mind burning as she clung to the irritation. She knew if she didn’t, she’d be complacent. That wouldn’t work.    
  
“Well, we still needed a solution. We knew our atmosphere made people relax, made them feel safe, trusting. It’s part of the planet’s allure. Spend a week with no stress. Face your fears! Blah blah.” Aisling interrupted, her voice thick with tears. Rose had no sympathy for her, not after she’d manipulated the Doctor, manipulated her into trusting her. “So, the government passed a law. All males Yeruans are given a birth control implant at puberty. It can be removed only after marriage, and only after their wife conceives an off world child. For every Yeruan child a couple has, they must almost have an interspecies child.”    
  
“Love, don’t, don’t stress yourself further. Please.” Jarek sighed, stroking her hair. The Doctor sneered as he gave him an imploring look. “They set restrictions on more than that. We are no longer allowed to pick men alone. They use contraceptives or slip up and admit it to their partners. So, the government passed a law. We can only pick couples, or, friends who obviously love each other. Befriend them, take on their genetic and emotional imprint...” Jarek looked down, swallowing. “This morning, when I held your arm. I know you felt the heat. Aisling got Rose’s in the garden. We knew you two loved each other, even though you denied it.” The Doctor was about to let loose a rather colorful insult when Jarek held a hand up. “Then we shift and separate the couple, or get them alone somehow. Then we mate with them, always simultaneously, sharing our pleasure through the emotional bond we share. That way, we can try to reciprocate what the other is receiving to our person.”   
  
Rose’s stomach and mind flipped. Everything Jarek had done to her, the Doctor had done to Aisling. Everything she did to Jarek, Aisling did to the Doctor. Tears pricked her eyes, because it wasn’t fair. It was so wrong. They had ruined everything. The Doctor would push her away now, she knew it.    
  
“Nobody has been able to tell the difference until now. Our people have been doing this for eighty years. Our planet has become an unofficial honeymoon planet, or where people bring the one they’re in love with to finally break the ice.” Jarek sighed, running a hand down his face. “Marriage counselors across this quarter of the galaxy actually recommend couples to come here! We give them pleasures that bring them closer together, and they help us rebuild our society.” Jarek stared directly into the Doctor’s eyes, begging him to understand. “Our species was dying, but now we’re not. Our cross species children marry full Yeruans, reducing inbreeding, minimizing birth defects, and preserve our culture.” Aisling was sobbing now, clinging to her husband. “If we don’t do it, we face two years in jail, separated. They have dampeners in them that blocks our bond. It’s hell!   
  
“Why us? Huh? You have half a dozen couples staying here. A whole city to choose from.” The Doctor held Jarek’s gaze, as Rose stiffened behind him.    
  
“When you said you’d been here before, Doctor, we thought you brought Rose here to use our atmosphere to tell her how you felt.” Aisling spoke again, lifting her face away to show she had indeed been silently sobbing into her husbands chest. “We could feel how much you loved each other. We just planned to do the shift, give you both a night of pleasure, and sneak out while you slept. We’ve been taught that’s the best way. You two would wake up, the tension broken, knowing how you each feel, and be none the wiser.”    
  
“Well you made a mistake many others have made.” The Doctor snorted, as the couple shared a look that said he was right. He tugged Rose around now, as he knew that Jarek was not just some predatory rapist. “See, we know each other. Our trust, our bond, goes beyond anything you could ever imagine. Underestimating me, well, that happens all the time. Something I’ve learned, something Daleks and mutant fish parasites have learned, is that you never, ever underestimate Rose Tyler.” He was proud of Rose. She’d obviously figured it out first.” He looked down, finding her gazing up at him with a mixture of suspicion and worry in her eyes. “What was it, the one heart, hot skin, he say or do something inferior?”    
  
“He didn’t have your mole.” Rose slipped her hand up to brush the penny size bump on his shoulder. “You love the mole.” His lips twitched up in a brief smile, eyes shining with pride. “Then the one heart, hot skin.”    
  
“Will you let us go now? I’d like to spend my last few hours of freedom for the next two years with my wife.” Jarek sounded so defeated, and Rose looked back to him. All of Aisling’s easy confidence and sparkling energy was gone. For the first time Rose felt a stab of sympathy. She knew what it was like to be ripped away from the man she loved. Then she remembered how swiftly Jarek had stopped. He could have lied, or restrained her and let his wife continue, but he let her go to the Doctor.    
  
“Doctor.” Rose’s soft voice drew the Doctor’s attention back down. She was still angry, he could feel that, but she had that look, that one that said she was feeling sympathy when he couldn’t. “He didn’ hurt me, you know. He stopped. He let me in your room.” He saw her look at Aisling, the silent communication between the women. “They were jus’ followin’ the law, doin’ what they had to do to stay together.” Her eyes met his again, wide and imploring. “Remember what happened when I thought I was gonna lose you forever?”    
  
He did, vividly, hell, he had this body because she defied all the laws of time and space to stay with him. The Doctor drew a breath, and Rose squeezed his hand, speaking before he could. “Go, make your report. You tried to follow the law. We’ll back you up.” Stars above, this was why he loved her. She showed mercy to anyone, effortlessly.    
  
“Thank you! Thank you!” Aisling gasped, and Rose watched as Jarek got her out of the room in under a minute. The silence in the room was thick, and she was barely holding on to the itch now that she understood there was no immediate threat to the Doctor.    
  
“So what now?” The Doctor relaxed when the door shut, and Rose’s question as she turned to face him had him wondering the same. Finally, he looked at her, and the image before him, of her in his shirt, hair mussed, makeup snog and foreplay smeared would have been perfect, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t from him.    
  
“I’m taking you back to the TARDIS, and then I’m having a nice long chat with the government.” Now that he knew the cause  of it all, he had a relatively easy solution. Well, it was easy for him, but their scientists were going to have learn on the job. Rose shifted her weight, and the sight of her bare thighs made it so hard to focus. “First, we need to get you dressed.”    
  
“You can’t just order them to stop, Doctor. Their species will die out.” Rose tried not to feel disappointed that the Doctor was turning away from her now, making it a point to stare anywhere but her. No, she harbored that emotion, using it to keep herself steady. “Move.” She pushed him aside, grabbing a pair of his pajama pants from the bag at his feet and pulled them on. So, he could take a copy of her to bed, but not look at her? Well fine.   
  
“Rose, My people were sterile for six millennia, but I’m only nine hundred. There are ways to reproduce without sex or cloning or in vitro fertilization.” The Doctor reached out to his connection with the Tardis, prodding her from her two day nap, and asked her to dig everything about looming and creating the looms from her data banks and send it to the rarely used computer in his study. “I have the information on our methods on the TARDIS. I’ll offer it to them, on the condition that the laws are stopped and anyone imprisoned for breaking it are freed.”    
  
“I want to come!” Rose grabbed his arm, but the Doctor pulled away.    
  
“No. You’re going back to the TARDIS.” He couldn’t get over the way Jarek had used his body to take advantage of her. He was also ashamed that she had figured it out before him, not that he thought he was more clever, because when it came to things like love and relationships and all that, Rose was far more clever. It was because he had wanted it to be her, wanted to believe she loved him, wanted him that he couldn’t figure it out immediately. “One of us needs a clear head, to be out of this atmosphere. I need to know you’re safe.” He stared out the window, clinging to that itch that accompanied his shame.    
  
“Doctor-“    
  
“Go pack. Meet me in the garden in ten minutes.”    
  
Rose stared at the Doctor’s back, knowing that the stubborn set of his shoulders, his fists clenched, meant he wasn’t backing down. “Fine.” She spun on her heel and forced herself not to run to the door. Once she was safely in her room, she began throwing her things in her bag.


	12. Chapter 12

Rose had missed Jack a lot over the last two years, but never as much as she did standing at the galley sink. Nobody had understood her life with the Time Lord quite like he had, and she needed him so badly. The Doctor had walked her silently to the TARDIS, wearing his trademark brown pinstripes, tie snugly in place, specs on. He’d given her a half hug at her door, before disappearing down the hall. The TARDIS had jostled briefly, indicating a location jump and not a true flight. She’d gone to the console room and peeked out the door, to see his long coat swishing down a brightly lit hall. He’d looked back, pointed firmly at her to stay, and kept walking. That had been twelve of her hours ago.    
  
She’d showered, eaten, taken a four hour nap, and checked out the door. They hadn’t moved. So she’d tried reading, and dozed off for another two hours. When she woke up that time, it had been to what she could only describe as an emotional hangover. It was as if the remnants of every negative emotion that had been suppressed by the Yeruan atmosphere had bubbled over. Fear, panic, anger, rage, jealousy, hatred, sadness, self loathing, and shame piled onto her all at once.    
  
Rose had cried into her pillow. She’d gone to the workout room Jack had used to train her on self defense and laid into the punching bags and dummies until her fingers and feet ached. She’d screamed herself hoarse, cried some more, and finally dragged herself to the galley to dig a pint of ice cream from the freezer. Once that was gone, she’d made some tea, and tried to cobble her erratic emotions into check, but the Doctor’s absence made the tea taste bitter and harsh.    
  
If she’d had Jack there, then she could tell him. He’d let her rant. He’d hug her and make innuendo laden jokes. He’d ruffle her hair and complain she got snot on his shirt from crying, but then wipe her nose wit his sleeve all the same. Then he’d somehow find all the good things she missed, connect them together, until she could see them too, and then he’d say. “Better? Thought so. Now, let’s go find Mr. Grumpy and annoy him.”    
  
Rose didn’t have Jack, though. She just had the TARDIS, who kept humming worriedly in her mind, almost reminding her of Jackie. The old girl tickled her thoughts, sometimes soothing, sometimes with a sensation that might be mutual annoyance at their Doctor, and occasionally a sharp flicker of lights to bring her back to herself. It helped, but it wasn’t the same. Her friendship with the Doctor was balancing on a fine line, and she wasn’t sure what was going to happen when he got back. Could they fix this, or was she about to end up dumped on her mum’s doorstep?    
  
The TARDIS’ hum changed, and the ship jerked. Rose barely caught her tea cup on the edge of the sink before it fell, and she dumped it into the basin. The ship jerked again, and the unmistakable whorping whoosh of her engines announced the Doctor’s return. Drawing a deep breath, Rose pushed away from the sink and headed to the console room.    
  
The Doctor gritted his teeth as he launched the TARDIS into the Vortex. Twelve hours it had taken to explain to the top scientists of Yeruan Minor how looming worked, how to build the looms, extract the necessary DNA that would prevent all the nasty side effects of inbreeding. Siblings would be, technically, siblings, but at the cellular level, they would be more like twentieth cousin’s twice removed. The laws were gone, and the prisons were being emptied. In one generation, the Yeruans would be as genetically diverse as they had been before the plague.    
  
Twelve hours, twelve long, frustrating hours, the Doctor had spent away from Rose. She hadn’t come to him, hadn’t defied him and come sauntering in asking him clever questions. She hadn’t come given the planet’s King and Queen a proper, Tyler tongue lashing. He’d been waiting, anxiously expecting her every time the lab doors opened. Rose hadn’t left the TARDIS, and the monitor confirmed that. The Doctor didn’t know what that meant.    
  
Inside his ship, now, his body was filtering the effects of the atmosphere. All the remnants of his emotions were filling him up. Anger was the easiest to manage, because he’d learned the hard way to keep that in check. Guilt, well, that was as natural in his body as breathing. It got shoved in it’s usual constant background spot. It was the other emotions like jealousy, envy, shame, and feral protectiveness that were making his chest burn as he pressed his fist into the console.    
  
He waited, impatiently, not daring to hope, for Rose to come running into the console room, demanding details. It didn’t matter if she was mid shower or passed out drunk on the library floor with Jack. When the TARDIS jerked into flight, Rose came running. It was as constant as two plus two equals four. The Doctor just needed to know she wasn’t leaving, that this hadn’t ruined everything. That his weakness, his failure to realize that it wasn’t her, seeing him with Aisling, witnessing him lose his cool on something other than a Dalek or Cyberman hadn’t scared her. The longest it had ever taken her to come to the console room was two minutes. It was now at four. “That’s that, I guess.” He sighed, resolving himself to go to her room, knowing she was probably waiting by her dufflebag.    
  
“Fixed them up?” Her soft question, the thick, scratchy, unmistakable sound of her ‘I definitely wasn’t crying. I’m fine.’ Voice made the Doctor look up. Rose was in the archway to the main hall, in a lowcut red shirt, and a pair of loose black lounge pants. She looked at him, her eyes full of something he couldn’t define.    
  
“Yeah. I taught them about looming, watched them sign the abolishment of the law, and issue the blanket pardon.” The Doctor fiddled with the lever to stabilize the TARDIS’ parking. “You get any sleep?”    
  
“Yeah, couple hours. I, erm, when the atmosphere’s effects wore off, it woke me up. Been tryin’ to get my head right.” Rose brushed her hair back, and the marks Jarek left on her neck glared at him, offensive in their reddish, purplish, brown audacity. In that moment, the Doctor had never even hated the Daleks as deeply.    
  
“Doctor, why’re you glaring at me like that?” He clenched his jaw tighter, trying not to look at them. He couldn’t stop. They weren’t right. They didn’t belong there. “Fine, stay here and be pissed at me. ‘M goin’ back to bed-“    
  
“He marked your skin.” The Doctor’s voice was a tone Rose had never heard as he cut her off, and it made her stomach tighten. She froze in her attempt to turn, and she gasped as the Doctor was suddenly in front of her, staring at her neck and chest like they were covered in some deadly rash. Then he was dragging her down the hall by her arm, that Oncoming Storm expression darkening his face.    
  
“I’ll go cover them up!” Rose was too stunned to pull away. She knew he’d never raise a hand to her, but she mentally kicked herself for forgetting about the hickeys, for not wearing something that would hide them. It was too late now, because this was it. He was going to lock her in her room and tell her to pack. Tears threatened to spill again, but she held them back, trying to find the words to make him let her stay.    
  
“You’ll still have to see them in the mirror.” The Doctor growled, and Rose was confused as they passed her room, turned down the hall, and he kicked open the infirmary door. “Get on the bed and take off your shirt.” His voice was low, burning in icy fury, and Rose gulped. She climbed onto the examination table and peeled off her shirt, glad she had maintained the forethought to wear a bra.    
  
“What are you doing?” She asked, but he didn’t answer. He just pushed his specs up further on his nose, threw open a cabinet, grabbed a device she vaguely recognized, and towered in front of her.    
  
“Getting rid of him.” The Doctor pressed the dermal regenerator to the mark highest on Rose’s neck. He didn’t let himself look at her body, because it wasn’t right after all they’d been through. The mark was barely fading, as if defying him out of spite. “Come on, work.” He slapped the device on his palm and pressed it to her skin again.    
  
“Jus’ leave them. They’ll fade in a few days.” Rose pushed at his hand, but the Doctor moved the device right back. “Doctor, honestly. I’ll get over it. Jus’ another bruise, okay.” The mark was beginning to fade away, slowly lightening. She pushed at his hand again, shaking her head. “They don’ bother me.”    
  
“Well they bother me!” His own infuriated cry caught him off guard as Rose sucked in a breath and dropped her hands to her lap. His hearts were pounding, as the mark disappeared, and he moved to the next one, just above her collarbone. “They don’t belong there! They’re wrong, Rose!”    
  
“Why is this making you so angry? It’s not the firs’ time ‘ve gotten bruises or cuts.” Rose’s voice was too calm, too rational. Didn’t she get it? Hadn’t she seen everything, his most secret desire? “Doctor, talk to me! Please, I need to understand. I don’t know who we are right now, and ‘m scared!” The second mark faded from view, and he swallowed shifting it lower to the one just above her left breast. “You never shut up, bu’ right now you won’ even look at me!” He couldn’t. How could he, after the mess he’d led her in to, after his failure to keep her safe. “Say something!”    
  
“Because it wasn’t me that put them there!” The Doctor’s choked cry made Rose’s head spin, and she gripped the bed to steady herself. “Because these weren’t made out of love for you.” The dermal regenerator fumbled against her skin as the Doctor ripped off his glasses and stared up at the ceiling. “Because if I had just danced with you longer, had kissed you goodnight, then maybe...” Rose felt like she’d just been bowled over by a truck, and she struggled to breathe when his eyes met hers. She’d never seen him look so, so, well, she didn’t have a word for the expression. “Maybe it would have actually been me in your room.” Oh, Oh! “Now you know, not that you didn’t ger an eyeful already, and if you want to leave-“    
  
“Doctor.” Rose’s voice was so soft, so full of forgiveness that the Doctor managed to shut up his rambling gob. He tried to make sense of the tears filling her eyes, of the way she drew in a shaking breath. “I love you too.” His hearts stopped when Rose grabbed his tie and pulled him down. He had no willpower left to resist, and his universe was whole again when she pressed her lips to his gently, in the softest, sweetest, most wonderful kiss he’d ever received. “So much.” Her hand found his, raising the device back to his chest as she caressed his lower lip with her own.    
  
Rose wanted to cry in relief when the Doctor cupped her face tenderly and sighed into her mouth. He did love her. She could feel it, though he hadn’t said it. It was so evident in the way he stroked her cheek with his thumb, in the way his tongue met hers with the briefest of brushes. She wrapped her arms around his body, holding him close as he set the device aside and stroked her spine. “Please, don’ feel guilty. Don’ blame yourself.” How had she ever mistaken Jarek for him? Last night had been so wrong, and she could clearly feel it now.    
  
“As long as you don’t.” The Doctor countered her request, knowing she was harboring her own regrets. “How could I have mistaken her for you?” He sighed, pulling back to drown in the love that was glowing up at him. “Please don’t leave me.”    
  
“I promised you forever ‘nd a day, Doctor. I meant it.” Rose’s entire being melted as he smiled brighter than all the stars in the universe. “Can we go to your room? I need you to hold me right now.”    
  
“I can’t say no to you anymore.” The Doctor promised, and he scooped her into his arms, letting himself taste her lips again. “Rose, love.” She looped her arms around his neck, her cheeks flushing adorably. He had to ask, because he needed to hear it. “Would you, maybe, like to make it our room?”    
  
“Take me to our room, Doctor.” Rose sighed, snuggling her face into his neck, breathing in that unmistakable scent of Time and eternity on his skin.


	13. Chapter 13

The last two times Rose had been in his room, the Doctor been more than bit trepidatious because he hadn’t told her that having her there was his deepest fantasy. Now he was trepidatious because she knew it, but the scent of Aisling was still on his skin. Out of the Yeruan Atmosphere, he could smell her, and it was an insult to his Rose that it lingered. “Wait here for me.” He murmured into her hair as he lowered her to sit on the sheets.    
  
“Where’re you goin’.” Rose made to stand, to grab his hands as he pulled away. She stopped when he gave a strange frown and sniffed his shoulder.    
  
“To shower, I haven’t yet... since...” His eyes spoke volumes, and she understood. The air on Yeru Minor probably affected those superior Time Lord olfactory senses he boasted on. She could only imagine what was lingering on his skin, and frankly, she didn’t want to. “I’ll be quick, back in a jiff. You’ll barely notice I’m gone.”    
  
“Want me to join?” Any other time, any other situation, and the Doctor would have said yes. Instead, he leaned in to catch that sultry pout of hers with his lips, and pushed her back.    
  
“Not this time. Two ticks.” And Rose was alone on the Doctor’s bed, no, their bed. The thought made her shiver pleasantly. She relaxed back into the sheets, realizing only now that she had left her shirt in the infirmary.    
  
She was lying on their bed, in just lounge pants and a bra. The Doctor was only a door away, naked, showering because he didn’t want to hold her when he could smell someone else on his skin. Rose felt herself smile at the perfect insanity that had become her life. “Our bed.” She hummed the word, rolling over to the pillow that he had propped himself up on the last two times. He’d leaned against the headboard, letting her use his chest and stomach as a pillow. How had she never realized what he had been saying then?    
  
She breathed in the smell of him, burying her face in the soft material encasing the pillow. Now that she was here, she realized what a poor impression the Yeruan Atmosphere had been. The scent had seemed strong there, but here, it was sharper, crisper, all encompassing as she inhaled it. “He loves me.” She sighed, closing her eyes. Her bra was a bit uncomfortable, and she only considered it a moment before reaching back to unclasp it and toss it aside. Then she snuggled back down, floating in the content safety of the moment.    
  
The Doctor scrubbed his skin fiercely, but quickly. Then he did his hair, and spent extra time double washing his manly bits. It took four minutes, but it was enough. There was no scent on his body except his own, the body wash, and the water. Toweling off, he eyed his discarded suit habitually. Catching himself, he changed his mind and grabbed the pair of pajama pants he’d tossed on the counter the morning before they landed on Yeru Minor.    
  
He’d only worn them for his two hour cat nap the night before, so they were still clean. He tugged them on over his damp legs. Again, habit told him to grab the shirt he’d worn with them too, but the Doctor shoved it aside. He didn’t need it with Rose, not anymore. There was no need to hide behind his cloth armor. She loved him, all of him, and he marveled at how astounding that was. She knew everything about him, except his name. He stepped into the bedroom, about to speak, but he paused, feeling his hearts melt at the sight before him.    
  
Rose had tossed her bra off, and it dangled amusingly on the edge of his dresser. Her bare back was glowing in the warm yellow lights of his room, the light tan turned porcelain in contrast to his black sheets. She was sprawled across his preferred spot, one leg bent up to her stomach, and the other was straight out, his favorite pillow clutched in her arms with half her face buried in it. The one eye he could see was closed, in that half asleep and barely alert way she sometimes got when he read to her on the sofa in the library. Rose was relaxed. She was in his bed, no their bed, and she was his. Moving forward, he eased himself down to sit beside her legs. Then, gently, he trailed the tip of his fingers along her bare shoulder.    
  
The cool, featherlight caress tempted Rose out of her half dream state. She shivered at the contact, rolling over to catch the Doctor’s hand and bring it to her lips. “Hello.” She whispered against the pads of his fingers, her heart soaring as he gave her a sweet, small smile and traced her lips with his thumb. She noticed he was shirtless, and it was beautiful.    
  
“Still tired?” The Doctor queried, even as Rose wriggled back to make room for him. He turned, lying beside her, ignoring the desire to drink her bare torso in with his eyes. She’d asked him to hold her, not ravage her.    
  
“No, you?” He shook his head, humming when she moved her hand across the sheets to stroke his chest. Her warm touch lit sparks under his skin, making him sigh. “‘Ve dreamed of this, lyin’ here with you, together.” Her fingers ghosted up his neck to caress his jaw, and the minute distance between them wasn’t something he could tolerate. Gently, but firmly, he scooped an arm under her neck, threw his other over her side, pulled her flush to him, and buried his face in her hair.    
  
“I’ve dreamed of this.” The Doctor’s whisper made Rose smile into his chest, and she wriggled her left thigh between his legs. Chest bursting with joy, she slipped an arm under his body, draping her other over his waist, and pulled herself even closer to him.    
  
She kissed his chest, loving the way his hearts stuttered off beat, and how he stroked her hair and her back. The silence between them was easy, peaceful, like they’d done this every day for years. Rose had never felt anything so right, so perfect.    
  
“Why didn’t you come find me, while I was gone?” The Doctor didn’t know why he asked that. It had just bubbled into his mind, like when he’d forgotten he’d been thinking about something weeks before and the answer came blurting out mid conversation about something completely irrelevant.    
  
“I thought you didn’ want me to. I thought you were gonna send me away.” Rose snuggled impossibly closer to him, unashamed to admit it now. “‘Nd then, my head was a mess. I didn’ want to go after you ‘nd start a row while you were tryin’ to fix things.” She tightened her arms around him, trying to erase any bit of space she could. “You were so cold, like when we went back to my dad, ‘nd you walked away. I thought, maybe, you really meant it this time, to stay in the TARDIS.” She kissed the skin over his right heart. “Did you want me ta come find you?”    
  
“The moment I turned the first corner. I kept waiting, kept expecting the doors to those labs to open, guards chasing you yelling ‘hey! You can’t go in there!’” The Doctor stroked his Rose’s soft back, guilty that he’d let his anger at the others project in his behavior to hers. “When you didn’t come, I thought I’d pushed you away for good this time. I thought I was gonna find you waiting in your room demanding to go home.”    
  
“This is my home, Doctor.” Rose pulled her face back to crane her neck and kiss his chin. “Don’ you know that? This’s been my home since you didn’t have the money to buy me chips.” She felt like a weight had been lifted off of her as the Doctor pressed his lips to her forehead and held them there firmly. “‘Ve been fallin’ in love with you since ‘Forget me, Rose Tyler.’”    
  
“So glad you didn’t forget me.” The Doctor had no idea she’d even given his last body a second glance this way. “You loved me then, even with those big ears and burly attitude?” The giggle she made as she nodded and pulled back just enough to meet his eyes was the most beautiful sound in the universe. “Seriously?”    
  
“Doctor, I couldn’ care if your next body looked sixty. I love these.” Rose pressed her palms into his hearts. “These are the Doctor. Like you said, bein’ attractive’s just the cherry on the banana split.” She kissed his nose as his face broke into that goofy, toothy smile she adored. “But, if you must know, I thought your last body was very, very sexy.”    
  
“What about this one?” The Doctor fished for the compliment, because he wanted to see her roll her eyes. Rose did just that, and he kissed her nose. “Is it sexier?”   
  
“Equal levels of sexy. Now stop fishin’ for compliments. Your ego’s big enough for the entire population of Marusha.” Rose giggled as the Doctor waggled his eyebrows and sniffed in that superior way of his.    
  
“I love you.” The Doctor realized he had yet to return the words since she’d confessed them in the infirmary. He reveled in the way the three syllables transformed her entire countenance. Rose’s eyes lit up with an entire galaxy of stars. Her lips instantly parted in that tongue touched smile that made him fall in love with her all over again. Her fingers flexed against his chest and back, and she gave the slightest of wiggles in his arms. “You stole my hearts when you said ‘there’s me.’”    
  
“Yeah?” Rose had no idea he’d loved her that long. It was a soul deep relief to know he’d been feeling the same thing for her for just as long. The Doctor responded by cupping her cheek and kissing her so tenderly Rose thought she was going completely melt into his skin. When he pulled back, Rose managed to open her eyes and meet his adoring gaze. “Doctor, touch me.” She slipped from his arms and rolled onto her back.   
  
“I thought you’d never ask.” The Doctor had been restraining himself, but now Rose was pulling him by his elbows. Holding her gaze, he drew a breath, slid his fingers up her silken stomach, and moved over her to press her down into his sheets with a sigh.    
  



	14. Chapter 14

Most of Rose’s fantasies about the Doctor   
Finally crossing these lines had usually been him snapping and taking her hard and passionately in the console room. The others were him showing up at her door in the middle of the night and basically the same thing. So, having him braced on one forearm over her as he trailed the fingers of his left hand delicately down her bare skin was surprising. It was mostly surprising because it was shooting her arousal up just as high and fast as the fantasies. “Why are you trembling?” His voice was a husky whisper against her ear.    
  
“Because ‘m still not sure ‘m not dreamin’.” Rose’s breathless sigh made the Doctor’s skin tingle, and his breath caught when she slipped a hand into his hair to push his lips softly into her neck. Smirking, he laved a lingering kiss there, and the gasp she gave was one of the most beautiful sounds he’d ever heard.    
  
“We aren’t dreaming, love.” Rose nearly whimpered as the Doctor pushed himself up, away from her, but the sound was lost when she opened her eyes to find him kneeling between her thighs and drinking her in. “This is better than even my brilliant brain could imagine.” His cool fingers splayed across her sides, sliding up, ghosting along the underside of her breasts. “I want to touch all of you.”    
  
“Tha’ was what I asked for.” Rose’s quip was all the permission the Doctor needed. He slid his right hand up to cover her left breast, groaning as the dusky pink nipple pebbled instantly against his palm. “Wouldn’ object to your need to lick everythin’ either.” Her cheeky grin, as she arched into his palm and giggled drove him forward to wrap his lips around her right breast. The silky skin tasted divine against his tongue and he groaned.    
  
Rose cried out at the cool sensation of his tongue circling her skin, sending electric shivers in a palpable wave to her core. She hooked her ankles over his calves, using the leverage to press up into him while her own fingers mapped the sharp, lithe planes of his back. “Doctor, I love- yes!” She couldn’t help but curl her nails into his skin when he simultaneously gave a light pinch and a tender nip to both breasts, the sensations making her see stars.    
  
Releasing her with a wet pop, the Doctor smirked into her skin and began trailing his lips downward. He dipped his hands to the waist of her black lounge pants, eager to have them off so he could see her completely. “I love you too.” He paused at her stomach, when she tensed. Flicking his gaze up, he found her watching him, eyes burning with desire. “You don’t want me to-“    
  
“Only if you want to, not because you think-“    
  
“I have seventy eight fantasies of making you come undone this way.” To demonstrate, the Doctor circled her navel with his tongue. “Believe me. I want to.”    
  
“Then please, Doctor.” Her pleading moan was accompanied by her hips arching off the sheets, and the Doctor wasted no time sliding her pants off, knickers and all, to toss them aside and have his breath stolen. Rose Tyler was completely nude, in his bed, biting her lip, and glistening with arousal that he had caused.    
  
Rose had never, in all her time on the TARDIS, seen the Doctor speechless. Yet, there he was, hands resting on her bent knees, shirtless, pants tented in a more impressive erection than she’d dared fantasize for, gaping at her like he’d just uncovered some rare, long lost treasure. The idea that she was capable of reducing the most powerful being in the multiverse to that state made her feel unbelievably powerful and fragile all at once. “I’m yours, forever, my Doctor.” She murmured, hoping to bring him back to his promised attentions.   
  
“And I’m yours.” The Doctor stretched himself out between Rose’s legs, unable to decide which sight was more intoxicating: her desire filled eyes, or the way she shifted eagerly as he squeezed and stroked her supple thighs. “You smell amazing.” He groaned as the subtle, sweet aroma of her arousal washed over him. It was alluring, making his already hard length flex between his stomach and the sheets. His mouth watered for a taste of it, to see if it was as addictive as her lips. Taking her knees in both hands, he draped them over his shoulders then slid his fingers along her still trembling body to pull her closer to his mouth by her hips. When she gave a little yip at the movement, her right hand falling to his hair, the Doctor let his tongue slip out and catch the sticky nectar pooling in her short, neat curls.    
  
Rose had often wondered how the Doctor’s cooler touch and breath would feel against her heated folds. Once, just for effect, she’d tried an ice cub to see if it would give her a valid replacement. It hadn’t been pleasant, but this, oh, this was an unbelievable stimulation. His breath broke across her, making her shiver at the contrast, but when his tongue grazed her lightly, and then firmer, it was the most amazing sensation. “More.” She didn’t care that she was begging, especially not because he closed his mouth over her entire mons and sucked with a deep growl of pleasure.    
  
  
“You, get more, love. Just lie back and let me enjoy myself.” The Doctor chuckled when Rose whimpered and tugged his hair. He returned to his treat, feeling a bit drunk on the flavors dancing in his mouth. He wanted more, and he could have it, so he slipped his tongue to her entrance. Ashamedly greedy, he caught the pooling juices there, coating his tongue, circling it to seek out more. The hooded bud at her apex pulsed against him, and he trailed his tongue up to suck it softly between his lips. Rose keened, bucking off the sheets, and he felt more of her need dripping invitingly against his chin, so he dipped down to catch it on his tongue and spread it back up to circle.    
  
The Doctor’s hand came around her thigh, parting her folds, and Rose lost control of her mouth when that talented tongue of his laved a path from her center to her apex and swirled. “Yes, Doctor, more, please, so good.” She’d been on the receiving end of this a handful of times, but Mickey, and definitely not Jimmy, had ever seemed so eager or to enjoy it as much as the Doctor was. Her words had taken him from teasing tastes to making her feel like she was a full course, five star meal.   
  
He wasn’t just licking and sucking now. No, the Doctor was using his whole mouth in an almost ravenous way. She gave up trying to anticipate his pattern, unable to lift her head as he devoured her. Rose could barely cry out from his tongue slipping inside of her, circling, thrusting lightly, before it was flicking across her clit as he gave pleasurable, firm sucks. Some part of her brain registered that it was impossible to feel so much pleasure and not go insane, when his hand squeezing and massaging her left thigh slid down and he eased one of his nimble fingers inside of her. “Fuck!”    
  
“Rose Tyler, filthy!” He chuckled, which sent amazing vibrations straight to her core as he twisted his finger in a retracting motion. “But I like it.” As if to prove his point, he thrust his finger into her again, curling it upwards, as he circled his tongue with another mindblowing suck. Rose was certain she swore again, but her mind was too awash in pleasure to know.    
  
The Doctor was in heaven. Rose had dissolved into a babble of slurred swears and pleading to a deity for more. He had done this to her, and the pleasure she was broadcasting from her thoughts was driving him half spare. She was so tight around him, practically gushing that addictive nectar of her arousal around his finger, and he wanted more. He wanted to give her more. Adding another finger made her keen out another strangled, “Fuck, Doctor. You... more...” and when he curled them up, finding the ridged, velvet spot he’d been seeking, she began to flutter around him.    
  
He’d been longing for years to witness his Rose explode in ecstasy from him, and he knew she wouldn’t mind if he selfishly fed that longing. So, he closed his lips tightly over the swollen, tempting, hood flower and began to suck and flick his tongue in time with his fingers. Rose was shaking under him, the fluttering growing more intense, her thighs squeezing his head, and her hand fell from his hair. The Doctor looked up, amazed by the glorious sight of her fisting the sheets, tossing her head on the pillow, and her beautiful breasts bouncing slightly from the movements. She was his to love, and he was going to make her come undone.   
  
Rose felt her climax rushing towards her, promising an intensity she’d never experienced. The Doctor, her Doctor, was doing this to her, tightening that coil deep in her body. She wanted to make it last, to savor it as much as she could, but it was impossible with the way he was working her. “Doctor... ‘m gonna... please don’t stop.” She lifted her head, finding him watching her with a look of sheer desire and pleasure in his eyes. They made her all the more dizzy, and she felt herself hurtling towards the edge.    
  
She tightened her grip on the sheets, panting for air, pleading with her body to allow her just a few more seconds, just a breath more to savor what he was giving her. She teetered on the cusp, her pulse an ocean in her ears, as she squeezed her eyes shut. The Doctor moaned against her, tongue and lips relentless in their swirling sucks. Then his fingers thrust in again, hitting just THERE!    
  
She flew over the edge as stars exploded around her. Rose was certain she was crying his name, but she couldn’t hear over the roar of her pulse, over the ringing supernovas in her mind as her body shook and arched from what was without a doubt the most mind blowing orgasm of her life. Something cool and soft and sticky sweet brushed her lips, and she whimpered as she realized the Doctor was kissing her, stroking her sides, tenderly easing her back into herself. “You’re so much more beautiful than I imagined.” His murmur centered her enough to open her eyes, although the aftershocks made her mind spin. “So sweet, so delicious, I can’t get enough of you.”    
  
Something long, thick, and satin smooth while hard rubbed against her, sending little jolts of electric pleasure up her spine. The aftershocks of her orgasm intensified when Rose realized the Doctor had shed his pajama pants. The Doctor was naked over her. The Doctor was teasing the tip of his very, very impressive erection at her opening and then trailing her wetness up to tease against the overstimulated bud at the top of her curls. “Need you, please.” She gasped, finally able to control her boneless legs. She wrapped one around his narrow hips and curled the other around the back of his knee. “Doctor, please.”    
  
“Finally.” The Doctor groaned as he centered himself at the blazing, still fluttering center of Rose’s body. He eased into her gently, wanting nothing more than to just sink into her and finally feel what he’d been longing for. He kept it slow, though, letting her stretch around him, her breaths coming out in ragged, half moan half whimpers. Rose was perfection incarnate, so tight and hot and velvety soft around him. By the time he was sheathed fully inside of her, he realized he had been sucking hard at her shoulder, and Rose had tossed her head back, was arching off the sheets, and her nails were digging into his shoulders.    
  
He lifted his face to stare down at her. Rose met his gaze, holding it, lips kiss swollen and parted as her heart pounded against his chest. The Doctor wanted to tell her the indescribable thoughts that were overwhelming his mind, all the praises and platitudes he had come up with in his fantasies alone in this very bed. He was a genius, a true wordsmith, but the only thing he could manage was. “Blimey, you feel amazing.”    
  
“So do you.” Rose whispered back, and he watched the pleasure light up her eyes when he pulled halfway back to sink slowly in again. Her legs tightened. “Doctor, is it possible to- oh, mmm.” The Doctor chuckled as he gave a slightly faster rock into her and cut off her question with a groan. “I want... I want..” her fingers pressed shakily against his temple, and his pleasure clouded mind began to process her words. No, she wasn’t asking for -“Can we use telepathy while we make-“    
  
“I wasn’t going to ask until next time.” Rose felt her breath disappear as the Doctor’s eyes lit up with so much love she thought he would explode. “Don’t need, guh-“ his sentence cut short as he thrust into her, and for a moment she forgot what they were discussing. The Doctor was making love to her, and he was so sweet and gentle and hers. “To touch temples. This close.” He rocked into her again, making her keen wordlessly at how amazing he felt, stretching her, filling her. “This connected, I just need to-“ In a breath, she felt him pressing against her thoughts. There was no knock like before, because she had long past lost control of her fragile shields. No, the Doctor washed into her thoughts on a tidal wave of pleasure, and Rose pulled him down for a desperate kiss.    
  
Rose had thought the Immersion had intimate, but it was nothing compared to this. The lines that had kept them as separate beings were blurred, and she could feel everything he was feeling in synch with what she was. She could taste the Doctor’s lips on hers, and she could taste hers on his. She groaned as he set a deliberate rhythm with his thrusts, how each motion stimulated her, filled her, and she felt how glorious she was around him, enveloping him in her with tight clenches and flutters. It intensified everything, every touch, every gasp and sigh, and words lost importance because she could hear him, feel the emotions and love in her mind. It was beautiful, and impossibly consuming. She never wanted this to end.    
  
The Doctor buried his face in Rose’s neck as he let her explore their telepathic connection at her own pace. He’d wanted this for so long, but he had never imagined she would be as wonderstruck at this as she was. He lost himself to her thoughts, letting his instincts take over the physical bliss of their joining. He drank in her pleasure, letting his pour into her, and bathed in the magnificence of the bright, glowing love that he found inside of her. This was bliss. This was paradise, and he echoed her desire to never let this moment end.    
  
Where her mind was soft and imploring as it mingled with the Doctors, merging, caressing, and indescribably entrancing, Rose was wild under him. He didn’t think she was even aware that she had now wrapped both legs around his waist, or that there had been a brief moment where they had rolled over so she was circling her hips, taking him so deep he’d nearly finished then and there, before he flipped her back over. Somewhere in it all, both pillows had been knocked from the bed, and his blankets were bunched at their feet. All of this he registered, but didn’t process, drunk on her love.   
  
“You’re close. I can fee it.” Rose’s whimper was aloud and in his mind, heralding the tightening of his core, the muscles low in his thighs. The Doctor surged his thoughts forward in response, as he sought to feel her even closer, more deeply, and he swept her mind up in his. She didn’t object, and when the Doctor felt that ecstasy racing towards him, he clung to Rose’s mind and her body.    
  
He exploded, crying out as he felt his completion trigger a simultaneous climax in Rose. Her wordless mewl mixed with his, and the Doctor groaned as he felt his release surge out in the most satisfying sensation he’d ever experienced in his nine hundred plus years. He held himself inside of her, letting the stars in their minds and the frantic, fluttering, tightening of her body milk out every drop. “Now you see what you mean to me.” The Doctor whispered into Rose’s lips, feeling her tremble under him as she sang out her bliss in his mind.    
  
Rose shivered at the cool sensation of the Doctor’s release inside of her, and from the lazy way their thoughts were now tangled together in quiet whispers of love and adoration. She had seen it all, and it only made her love him all the more. “‘Nd you see what you mean to me.” She gasped as he eased himself from her, only to brace his arms on either side of her shoulders. She opened her eyes when he stroked her hair, finding him watching her with the softest, most loving expression anybody had ever given her. “I love you.”    
  
“Marry me.”    
  
The whispered words weren’t a request or a command. Somehow, Rose knew it was him vocalizing an unspoken realization they had both come to in their physical and mental joining. “As soon as possible.” The dazed, post coitus smile on his lips blazed brighter than any he’d ever turned on her.    
  
“We’ll be telepathically bonded forever.” Rose didn’t care, because she never wanted to feel what it was like without him in her mind ever again. She let him feel that without reservation. “Right now?”   
  
Rose giggled as she stroked his kiss swollen lip with a tingling finger. “That’s as soon as possible, isn’t -“ Her sentence was cut short as the Doctor lowered his lips to her ear and murmured a sentence of lyrical Gallifreyan. They seemed to go on for eternity, ringing in her ear, filling her mind with images of things she’d never dreamed possible, but when he stopped speaking, Rose realized it had only been a handful of breaths, and it hadn’t been a sentence. It had been a word. No, not a word, a name. “Doctor... was that your name? It’s beautiful.”   
  
“Yes.” The Doctor felt the weight of his past ease as Rose cupped his face and stared up at him with wide eyes. “Now, say yours.”    
  
“Rose Marion Tyler.”    
  
“Now I kiss the bride.” Feeling freer than he’d felt since the war, the Doctor caught Rose’s lips in his. She wrapped her arms around him, and the Doctor sighed as he felt their still joined thoughts snap together. He rolled onto his back, pulling her with him, never ceasing the dance of their kiss until she needed to pull back and breathe.    
  
“So we’re married?” Rose hummed, her fingers trailing warmth along his chest and in his mind as she stroked them against his skin. “I’m Mrs. Doctor now?”    
  
_ Yes, yes you are. _ He told her with a mental grin. He felt her jerk in surprise at the unspoken words, but then she gave the telepathic equivalent of a smug smile.    
  
_ Just like that? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Just like that.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Spontaneous and impossible, just like our lives _ . Rose kissed his chest as she sighed, and he felt the thoughts forming before she could get them out.   
  
_ Of course we can have a ceremony on Earth. Anything to make you smile.  _ __   
  
The Doctor fumbled with his foot for the blankets, as Rose began to shiver when her body temperature returned to normal. He pulled it over her, stroking his name against her spine as their thoughts drifted together and apart in lazy, wordless expressions of love, disbelief that this was finally their reality, wonder at how they had waited so long, and contentment at the knowledge that the other did love them.    
  
Suddenly, Rose began to giggle, and he lifted his head to search her eyes to make sense of the disjointed images in her mind that were the source of her laughter. “What?”    
  
“Mum’s gonna slap you for not askin’ her blessin’.”    
  
“You know what?” Rose watched as the Doctor arched an eyebrow and returned her smile with a grin of his own. “It’s already worth it.” Then he gave a growl and yanked her up so she was straddling his waist. “Now, Mrs. Doctor, why don’t you make it even more worth it.” In half a breath she found him hard and ready under her. “Our first Honeymoon can start now.”   
  
“With pleasure.” Rose giggled, and she inched herself down his body, under the sheets, to make sure that the slap would most definitely be worth it.   
  
  



End file.
